fuboTV Makes Bally Sports Great Lakes, San Diego Available; All Bally Sports RSNs Now on Streaming Service

When Bally Sports’ collection of regional sports networks (RSNs) finally launched on fuboTV in early February, sports fans across the country rejoiced. That joy quickly turned into confusion for fans in San Diego and the Great Lakes region, however, as the RSNs covering those markets were the only two not to be rolled out on Fubo at that time.

“Please note that Bally Sports San Diego and Bally Sports Great Lakes will launch at a later date ahead of the Major League Baseball season,” said the company’s website at the time. That later time is now, as Bally Sports Great Lakes and Bally Sports San Diego are now available to fuboTV users in appropriate markets.

The absence of these two channels from the initial rollout is likely explained by the fact that the main teams that the channels cover are from Major League Baseball. The other Bally Sports RSNs cover basketball and/or hockey as well, and both the NHL and NBA are smack-dab in the middle of their regular seasons. The baseball season, on the other hand, is just now beginning its preseason, with Spring Training games set to begin on Friday, Feb. 24.

The Great Lakes network overlaps coverage in many regions in its coverage map with over Bally Sports RSNs that include coverage of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and the NHL’s Columbus Bluejackets. Therefore, the redundancy of having the Great Lakes channel as well would not provide viewers much additional content until Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians began their preseason action.

Similarly, Bally Sports SoCal brings coverage of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and NHL’s Anaheim Ducks to San Diego, so there was no need to charge customers RSN fees for both channels until the San Deigo Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers got back to the diamond.

Thanks to the addition of these two channels to fuboTV, Padres and Guardians fans won’t have to miss their first Spring Training outings. The Padres will face the Seattle Mariners on Feb. 24 at 3:10 p.m. ET, and the Guardians will play the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 3:05 p.m. ET.

The additions of these two networks must mean that Bally Sports and its parent company Diamond Sports Group (DSG) have confidence they’ll be able to air games as scheduled. DSG is currently in the midst of bankruptcy court proceedings, leaving many viewers to wonder whether they would be able to live up to their MLB contracts.

Baseball is more than prepared if DSG cannot air those games, however. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has confirmed the league will use its linear channel MLB Network to air games meant for Bally Sports RSNs if DSG is unable to fulfill its contractual obligations to the league. Such a move could entail MLB offering in-market games on its out-of-market games service MLB.TV as well.

For now, however, it appears things are full speed ahead for Bally Sports as far as the MLB season is concerned. Bally Sports Great Lakes and Bally Sports San Diego are available to fubo.TV users in those markets as of now.