It’s seven in the evening, your favorite NBA team is playing and you are hyped. But despite the excitement you feel, the game isn’t live on a primetime slot on your television. Fortunately, one flip to a different channel and there it is, your team ready for action, and it’s on the local sports network. This was the case for many folks a decade ago. However, times have changed.
Throughout the start of the 2020 decade, Fox Sports, who held the majority of RSN’s (Regional Sports Networks) in the United States, had been purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Disney for nearly $10 billion. This was a massive blow for many cable television holders because, after a couple of months, Dish Network would drop these networks. Over the following years, Xfinity, YouTube TV, and many others would also drop these stations. Let’s go through the timeline on why these networks failed, and why the rise of the broadcasting economy caused the stoppage of RSN’s.
For the last half century, the MLB, NBA, and NHL have dominated under these media outlets, with the first regional sports network coming out of New
York which was called the “Madison Square Garden Network.” They would broadcast both the NBA’s Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers. By the late 1970s they were added to many cable systems in the New York metropolitan area.
As the 80s began, more of these networks began to spread throughout different parts of the U.S. Mainly with a company called SportsChannel Networks, these channels grew quickly as they hit the markets of New England, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Florida. Other additions were made as “Prime Ticket” hit, a Los Angeles channel in which rivaled the MSG (Madison Square Garden) Network during the Los Angeles Lakers dynasty run in the 1980s.
Then the grand expansion began as Fox Sports Net hit the market on November 1st, 1996– creating 22 regional “FSN” channels which included the MLB, NBA, and the NHL.
Everything was going as planned, and the fees to acquire these channels were extremely low. Subscribers would pay around $1-2 dollars per month to watch their favorite teams.
But as time moved forward, these networks had yet to be affected. Entering the new millennium, these fees hit $2-3 per month, which was still not unreasonable, according to SNL Kagan, a financial media industry. The average revenues for an RSN reached roughly $137.8 million in 2010. They were at their prime.
But soon that prime would come to an end. As the mid 2010s reached, the rise of cord-cutting increased, where people wanted to cancel their memberships for certain programs. This led to their peak of 189 Million RSN subscriptions being cut to just 154 million heading into 2020.
Finally in 2019-2020, 21 FSN channels were bought out by Sinclair Broadcast Group for $9.6 billion dollars, which were given to Disney. Fox Sports lost their name and was changed to Bally Sports. For other RSN networks, NBC Sports Regional Networks are owned by Comcast, but transitioned to streaming services like Peacock. This is the rate at which every RSN is turning into, and for much more expensive prices as well.
Many RSN’s have now fallen into bankruptcy, including Bally Sports, and AT&T SportsNet in 2023. These channels haven’t been able to keep up with today’s age, as more people are moving into the streaming world. Though it sucks for people wanting a cheaper brand of sports, this timeline is the reason why the economy for broadcasting has caused RSN’s to haunt, creating a new era in today’s age for sports fans all over the U.S, and the world.
