Sinclair Reportedly Looking to Buy NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported NBCUniversal was exploring selling off their NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks, after a plan to stream them fell through. Now, Sinclair Broadcast Group, best known as the owner of Bally Sports RSNs (formerly Fox Sports) has put in a bid for the channels, as the New York Post reports.

Sinclair could look to grab these RSNs and add them to their catalog of stations, giving them access to the coveted New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Chicago markets, among others. The report says that the “preliminary offer” came ahead of any financial details during the first part of the auction.

The decision for Sinclair to be involved in the process, is to give the company more leverage with cable and satellite distributors, to carry their full portfolio of local channels and Regional Sports Networks. The company has also planned to launch direct-to-consumer streaming access to the RSNs ahead of the 2022 baseball season, but has faced pushback from distributors.

Sinclair bought Fox Sports RSNs for $10.6 billion in May 2019, after it was divested from Disney after their acquisition of 21st Century. In July 2019, both Dish Network and Sling TV dropped the channels from their service. Then, last year, YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, and fuboTV dropped the RSNs.

Bally Sports RSNs are currently only available to stream on AT&T TV.

NBC Sports RSNs still has wide-distribution across Live TV Streaming Services. While they were dropped by Sling TV earlier this year, they are available on AT&T TV, Hulu Live TV, fuboTV, and YouTube TV.

The channels carry the Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, and San Jose Sharks. NBCU also owns a small share of SportsNet NY, which airs the New York Mets.