Sinclair Broadcasting is believed to be the leader in the clubhouse for the Fox-owned Regional Sports Networks (RSN), after a lengthy bidding process is soon to come to an end. According to a Fox Business article, Sinclair appears to have put the top bid to acquire the properties — with the bidding beginning back in November of last year, and the final bids were recently accepted from places like Liberty Media, the BIG3 basketball league and Sinclair Broadcasting, per Fox Business, via people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The RSNs, which are a group of cable networks providing a variety of sports broadcasting to around the country, were first sought out by Major League Baseball (MLB) as a solo bidder, but the league recently pulled out to join Liberty Media in the bidding war. It’s believed that Sinclair Broadcasting bid around $10 billion for the RSNs, per Fox Business. As of Friday, bankers said that Sinclair bid was the leading bid at the moment.
The RSNs had been valued at $20 billion based off of what Disney paid for previous Fox assets in March — which included all of 21st Century Fox, excluding Fox’s owned and operated affiliates, Fox Sports, Fox News and FOX Business.