Sinclair and Dish have apparently agreed to another month-long negotiations extension to their carriage deal for Sinclair-owned television stations and Tennis Channel. The new extension would run into mid-October according to John Ourand with Sports Business Journal.
Ourand reports sources close to the talks say the extensions indicate that a deal may be close at hand, and will likely include an agreement for carriage of the Sinclair-owned Bally Sports regional sports networks, which have been off of Dish Network for more than two years.
Based on Ourand’s information, it is not likely that the RSNs will return to Dish before the end of 2021. What is more likely is that the RSNs would return in time for MLB Opening Day next spring. Similar to Dish’s WarnerMedia deal last month for HBO that only brought the channel to Dish, it is unlikely that Bally Sports would come to Sling TV.
Currently, the only way to stream Bally Sports RSNs without cable is with a subscription to DIRECTV STREAM “Choice Plan” ($84.99 a month). They are also not on Hulu, YouTube TV, or fuboTV.
Everyone appears to be confident that a deal will be reached at some point within the next eight weeks. With that being the case, do not be surprised if at least one more extension is agreed to by the two sides before a deal is finalized.
After Sinclair closes a deal with Dish, it only has a short time to get in gear before working to negotiate a new deal for Charter’s Spectrum. That deal expires in March 2022.
The two companies have been at odds over a new carriage agreement, that has threatened to take Sinclair-owned CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC affiliates and Tennis Channel dark on Dish. The two sides had initially come to a temporary extension agreement in mid-August while negotiations over a long-term carriage pact continued. The two sides came to a second agreement in late August.
After Sinclair purchased the former Fox Sports regional sports networks in mid-2019, Dish and Sling TV dropped the RSNs from their lineups, and to date, have not returned them.
Late last year, Dish customers were without Nexstar locals in 120 markets during a dispute with that company. The channels returned after a three-week blackout.
In September 2019, AT&T and Sinclair had a pro-longed multi-month carriage dispute – but the channels were never officially dropped from DirecTV. Instead, the two sides continued to reach temporary extensions while they negotiated a new deal to carry Sinclair locals and Fox Sports RSNs.
Full List of Sinclair-owned Network Affiliates
| STATION | DMA |
|---|---|
| KTXS (ABC) | Abilene-Sweetwater, TX |
| WRGB (CBS) | Albany - Schnectady - Troy, NY |
| WFXL (FOX) | Albany, GA |
| KVII (ABC) | Amarillo, TX |
| KEYE (CBS) | Austin, TX |
| KBAK (CBS), KBFX (FOX) | Bakersfield, CA |
| WBFF (FOX) | Baltimore, MD |
| KFDM (CBS), KFDM-DT3 (FOX) | Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX |
| WBMA (ABC) | Birmingham (Anniston and Tuscaloosa), AL |
| KBOI (CBS) | Boise, ID |
| WUTV (FOX) | Buffalo, NY |
| KTVM (NBC) | Butte-Bozeman, MT |
| KGAN (CBS), KGAN-DT2 (FOX) | Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City & Dubuque, IA |
| WICS (ABC) | Champaign & Springfield-Decatur, IL |
| WCIV (ABC) | Charleston, SC |
| WCHS (ABC), WCHS-DT2 (FOX) | Charleston-Huntington, WV |
| WTVC (ABC), WTVC-DT2 (FOX) | Chattanooga, TN |
| KRCR (ABC) | Chico-Redding, CA |
| WKRC (CBS) | Cincinnati, OH |
| WACH (FOX) | Columbia, SC |
| KRCG (CBS) | Columbia-Jefferson City, MO |
| WSYX (ABC), WSYX-DT3 (FOX) | Columbus, OH |
| KSCC (FOX) | Corpus Christi, TX |
| WKEF (ABC), WKEF-DT2 (FOX) | Dayton, OH |
| KDSM (FOX) | Des Moines-Ames, IA |
| KFOX (FOX), KDBC (CBS) | El Paso (Las Cruces), TX-NM |
| KVAL (CBS) | Eugene, OR |
| KAEF (ABC) | Eureka, CA |
| WSMH (FOX) | Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, MI |
| KMPH (FOX) | Fresno-Visalia, CA |
| WGFL (CBS) | Gainesville, FL |
| WWMT (CBS) | Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, MI |
| WLUK (FOX) | Green Bay-Appleton, WI |
| WXLV (ABC) | Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem, NC |
| WCTI (ABC) | Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC |
| WLOS (ABC) | Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson, SC-NC |
| WHP (CBS) | Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, PA |
| WJAC (NBC) | Johnstown-Altoona-State College, PA |
| KSNV (NBC) | Las Vegas, NV |
| WDKY (FOX) | Lexington, KY |
| KHGI (ABC), KFXL (FOX) | Lincoln & Hastings-Kearny, NE |
| KATV (ABC) | Little Rock-Pine Bluff, AR |
| WGXA (FOX), WGXA-2 (ABC) | Macon, GA |
| WMSN (FOX) | Madison, WI |
| KTVL (CBS) | Medford-Klamath Falls, OR |
| KECI (NBC) | Missoula, MT |
| WEAR (ABC) | Mobile-Pensacola (Ft. Walton Beach), AL-FL |
| WPDE (ABC) | Myrtle Beach-Florence, SC |
| WZTV (FOX) | Nashville, TN |
| KOKH (FOX) | Oklahoma City, OK |
| KPTM (FOX) | Omaha, NE |
| KTVO (ABC), KTVO-DT2 (CBS) | Ottumwa-Kirksville, IA-MO |
| KBSI (FOX) | Paducah-Cape Girardeau-Harrisburg, KY-MO-IL |
| WPGH (FOX) | Pittsburgh, PA |
| WGME (CBS) | Portland-Auburn, ME |
| KATU (ABC) | Portland, OR |
| WJAR (NBC) | Providence-New Bedford, RI-MA |
| KHQA-TV (CBS), KHQA-DT2 (ABC) | Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk, IL-MO-IA |
| KRXI (FOX) | Reno, NV |
| WRLH (FOX) | Richmond-Petersburg, VA |
| WSET (ABC) | Roanoke-Lynchburg, VA |
| WUHF (FOX) | Rochester, NY |
| KUTV (CBS) | Salt Lake City, UT |
| KTXE-LD (ABC) | San Angelo, TX |
| KABB (FOX), WOAI (NBC) | San Antonio, TX |
| WTGS (FOX) | Savannah, GA |
| KOMO (ABC) | Seattle-Tacoma, WA |
| KPTH (FOX), KPTH-DT3 (CBS) | Sioux City, IA |
| WSBT (CBS), WSBT-DT2 (FOX) | South Bend-Elkhart, IN |
| KLEW (CBS) | Spokane, WA |
| KDNL (ABC) | St. Louis, MO |
| WSTM (NBC) | Syracuse, NY |
| WTWC (NBC), WTWC-DT2 (FOX) | Tallahassee-Thomasville, FL-GA |
| WNWO (NBC) | Toledo, OH |
| WPBN (NBC) | Traverse City-Cadillac, MI |
| WCYB (NBC) | Tri-Cities, TN-VA |
| KTUL (ABC) | Tulsa, OK |
| WJLA (ABC) | Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) |
| WPEC (CBS) | West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, FL |
| WTOV (NBC), WTOV-DT2 (FOX) | Wheeling-Steubenville, WV-OH |
| KSAS (FOX) | Wichita-Hutchinson Plus, KS |
| WOLF (FOX) | Wilkes Barre-Scranton-Hazleton, PA |
| KIMA (CBS) | Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, WA |