Three Winners, Three Losers from fuboTV’s New Carriage Deal With Bally
On Dec. 21, the live TV streaming service fuboTV struck a carriage deal with Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBG) to bring 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs) to its platform. The channels will be available soon for all Fubo customers in the respective markets as a part of their base subscription plan.
Times have been very tough for Bally Sports RSNs — and RSNs in general — lately. Cord cutting is accelerating across the United State, and RSNs serve such small markets that any sizable departure of users from the companies that carry them means trouble.
So who walks away from the deal between Bally and Fubo a winner, and who is worse off thanks to the agreement?
Winners
fuboTV
Fubo is an obvious winner here, but obvious winners still count. The sports-forward live streaming service adds to its already formidable array of sports channel offerings, which includes ESPN, FS1, CBS Sports Network, the Pac-12 Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network, NFL RedZone, NHL Network, and more. The addition of Bally Sports’ RSNs should also help Fubo add to its relatively modest subscriber base of 1.23 million customers.
Sports Fans
The ongoing saga of Bally Sports’ RSNs has been all tunnel with no light at the end for viewers in the regions covered by the channels. Most live TV streaming services have dropped Bally Sports RSNs due to cost, leaving audiences fewer and fewer places to watch their favorite sports teams. Fubo can reach anyone with an internet connection, so fans in the regions serviced by these RSNs will now be able to sign up and watch on any device with ease.
Early in December, NBC reportedly began moving forward on a plan to add its RSNs to streaming on the Premium Plus price tier of Peacock. This move will bring major sports teams in cities like Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia to streaming for a $10 per month subscription fee, a far cry from the $69.99 per month that Fubo subscribers must pay. Instead of trying to put its RSNs on an expensive multi-channel video programming distributor (vMVPD), NBC has chosen to keep them in-house and build on its own brand.
Sinclair Broadcasting Group
With the addition of the 19 Bally Sports channels in regions all across the country, nearly all of fuboTV’s 1.23 million customers are likely to be able to stream a local RSN. While that subscriber total will fluctuate around football season, if SBG averages $5 per month in its cut of the carriage fee across roughly 1 million customers, that will bring in $5 million monthly and $60 million per year.
After the MLB, NHL, and NBA reportedly opted not to purchase the Bally Sports RSNs and seemingly save Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports — which operates the RSNs — from bankruptcy, things were looking grim for the future of the channels.
However, announcing a deal with Fubo is a significant carriage win for the company — financially and for morale and public perception — and it is the first new TV deal with a streaming service in three years.
Losers
Major League Baseball
Sinclair has been involved in a bitter dispute with Major League Baseball regarding adding the streaming rights to more teams. MLB wants SBG to dig deep to pay for the streaming rights for additional teams — currently, Bally Sports+ only has the rights to five teams — and has no interest in being the benefactor of a struggling media company.
The new Bally Sports fuboTV deal gives SBG more negotiating leverage by expanding the reach of its RSNs, and that may weaken MLB’s hand in future negotiations. Much of baseball’s argument has been that adding more teams to keep subscribers engaged during the summer is integral to the streaming service’s success, because without them, fans who sign up for the NBA and NHL seasons are likely to cancel during the offseason. However, now that SBG has a new, consistent revenue stream to rely on, it significantly undercuts MLB’s argument.
DIRECTV STREAM
Until Wednesday’s announcement, DIRECTV STREAM had been the only live TV streaming service to offer the Bally Sports RSNs; while they were also available via Bally Sports+. However, the streaming service has announced that it will raise the price of its base package to a whopping $99.99 per month beginning in January, putting it at $20-$25 more than Fubo, once RSN fees are factored in.
The only downside in a sports fan’s comparison between the two live streamers is that fuboTV does not offer TNT or TBS; and while those are significant losses for, are they $25 worth of losses? Only individual consumers can answer that question for themselves.
Non-Sports Fans Subscribed to fuboTV
fuboTV has always marketed itself as a sports-focused streaming service. However, it has also become a reliable source of general entertainment programming, adding channels on a seemingly monthly basis for practically the whole of 2022.
So, for customers who were attracted to Fubo for its breadth of entertainment options and relatively low price, they are all now likely to be hit with a roughly $9 per month RSN fee. While many customers were already being charged the fee in some regions, the vast reach of Bally Sports channels means that practically every fiboTV customer will now be forced to pay for the privilege of having access to the sports networks, whether they want to watch them or not.