On Friday, Sinclair Broadcast Group, officially closed their deal for 21 Fox regional sports networks after acquiring them from Disney for $9.6 billion in May. And now, they might not be done shopping, with AT&T’s Regional Sports Networks on the block.
AT&T reportedly is interested in parting with [AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh], AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah, Nevada and Colorado), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (parts of Texas and Louisiana) and Root Sports Northwest (Alaska, Washington and Oregon). The four networks have rights to more than two dozen pro teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vegas Golden Knights, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, and Utah Jazz.
For streamers, AT&T divesting of the channels would be good news. Outside of AT&T SportsNet SouthWest, which is available on fuboTV, none of AT&T SportsNet channels are available to cord-cutters, even on AT&T’s own AT&T TV and AT&T TV NOW.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Sign Up | Free Trial | Get 50% Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| SportsNet Pittsburgh | + $29 | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | |
| AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| AT&T SportsNet Southwest | + $29 | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Root Sports Northwest | + $29 | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | |
AT&T amassed quite a lot of debt with its acquisition of DirectTV and Time Warner Inc. back in 2015. While the company has recouped some of it by divesting their stake in Hulu, they are hoping that by selling their Regional Sports Network, they can chop off another billion or so.