Bally Sports Florida
Internet Protocol television |
Bally Sports Florida is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local sports coverage in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Miami, Tampa and Orlando.
Bally Sports Florida maintains production facilities and offices located in Fort Lauderdale,
History
Bally Sports Florida was launched on December 29, 1987, as SportsChannel Florida. It was originally owned by
In the spring of 1988, SportsChannel Florida obtained the regional cable television rights to broadcast
In 1996,
Unlike the other networks that were members of the SportsChannel America chain, Huizenga's control of SportsChannel Florida prevented the channel from joining Fox Sports Net. Shortly after Cablevision and Fox Sports announced the merger in 1997, Cablevision ceased production of its national SportsChannel programming in favor of Fox Sports Net's programming (though the networks would not officially rebrand until early the next year). Since SportsChannel Florida did not have rights to the Fox Sports Net programming, SportsChannel Florida made an affiliation agreement with CNN/SI to carry its programming instead.[4] Cablevision finally repurchased Huizenga's share of the network in November 1999.[5] The network was relaunched as Fox Sports Net Florida on March 1, 2000, making it the last SportsChannel network to adopt the Fox Sports Net brand. At this time Fox Sports Net programming was moved from the Sunshine Network (which Fox only had a minority-interest in) and CNN/SI programming was phased out.[6][7]
In February 2005, News Corporation acquired Cablevision's ownership stakes in Fox Sports Florida and
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies,
On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.[14]
Programming
Bally Sports Florida holds the regional cable television rights to the NBA's Orlando Magic, the NHL's Florida Panthers, and the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball.
Bally Sports Florida shares the broadcast rights to the aforementioned professional sports teams with Bally Sports Sun (with Miami Heat games transmitted to cable providers in South Florida, and Orlando Magic games aired exclusively on Bally Sports Florida [15] in Central and Northern Florida. The two channels do not focus on one region of Florida, but simply distribute games in accordance with each team's territorial rights, with both cable channels maintaining exclusivity over regional broadcasts of Lightning, Heat, Marlins, Rays, Magic and Panthers games.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, Miami Heat and Tampa Bay Rays are televised on Bally Sports Sun, while the Orlando Magic, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers are televised on Bally Sports Florida. Additionally, each network televises exclusive shoulder programming highlighting the team, players and coaches on the corresponding network.[16]
Notable on-air staff
Current
- David Steele- Orlando Magic play-by-play announcer
- Jeff Turner - Orlando Magic color analyst
- Dante Marchitelli - Orlando Magic studio host and reporter
- Brian Hill - Orlando Magic studio analyst
- Quentin Richardson - Orlando Magic studio analyst
- Steve Goldstein - Florida Panthers play-by-play announcer
- Randy Moller - Florida Panthers color analyst
- Craig Minervini - Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers studio host and reporter
- Jessica Blaylock - Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers studio host and reporter
- Ed Jovanovski - Florida Panthers studio analyst
- Jeff Chychrun - Florida Panthers studio analyst
- Paul Severino - Miami Marlins play-by-play announcer
- Jeff Nelson - Miami Marlins studio analyst and color analyst
- Tommy Hutton - Miami Marlins studio analyst and color analyst
- Gaby Sánchez - Miami Marlins studio analyst and color analyst
- Rod Allen - Miami Marlins color analyst
Former
- Tony Grier College Basketball Commentator
- Mid-Atlantic Sports Network
- Laura Rutledge - Tampa Bay Rays pre and post-game reporter now with ESPN/SEC Network
- Allison Williams - Miami Marlins in-game reporter, Formerly of ESPN and now with Fox Sports
- Joe Magrane - Tampa Bay Rays analyst now with MLB Network
- Kevin Kennedy - Tampa Bay Rays analyst
- Kelly Nash - Tampa Bay Rays pre and post-game reporter now with MLB Network and NHL Network
- MLB on TBS, and Los Angeles Angels baseball play-by-play announcer now with College Football and Basketball play-by-play on CBS Sports, and CBS Sports Network
- Todd Hollandsworth - Miami Marlins color analyst
- J. P. Arencibia - Miami Marlins studio analyst
Carriage conflicts
Bright House
For its first 21 years of existence, the channel was not available to most cable subscribers in the Orlando area, as
Fox Sports Net's sister subsidiary Fox Television Stations had earlier purchased WRBW (then a UPN affiliate) in Orlando in 2001, followed by its purchase of Fox affiliate WOFL (channel 35) in 2002. On paper, this gave News Corporation – the corporate parent of the Fox Sports Networks at the time – the right to require Bright House to carry Fox Sports Florida as part of its retransmission consent compensation agreement for carriage of WOFL and WRBW, but Fox chose not to exercise that right. Bright House would agree to carry Fox Sports Florida on its Orlando system, with the channel being added on digital cable channel 50 on January 1, 2009. News Corporation and Bright House reached a new retransmission agreement on January 1, 2010, preventing both Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports from being dropped from the provider's central Florida system. Fox would want Bright House to return Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports to the provider's Orlando service area on February 12, 2010.
Fox Sports Florida was also not available on Comcast systems in the Sarasota and Tallahassee markets until 2006, and remains unavailable on Comcast's Lake County systems. Orlando Magic games aired on the channel are blacked out by Comcast in the Jacksonville market.
References
- ^ a b Fox Sports (January 1, 2013). "Contact Us". FOX Sports. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
- ^ "Cable sports showdown in Florida" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 15, 1988. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
- ^ Byrd, Alan (December 2, 1996). "Sunshine loses half of Marlins games to rival". Orlando Business Journal. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ Hooper, Ernest (July 18, 1997). "SportsChannel to air CNN/SI". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ Steve Donohue (November 15, 1999). "Rainbow, Fox Deal for Florida Net". Multichannel News. Cahners Business Information. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
- ^ Cunningham, Dave (January 7, 2000). "SPORTSCHANNEL JOINS FOX SPORTS". The Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ TALALAY, SARAH (January 7, 2000). "SALE PUTS SPORTSCHANNEL UNDER FOX'S SPORTS NET". Sun-Sentinel.com. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ Littleton, Cynthia (May 3, 2019). "Sinclair Clinches Disney-Regional Sports Networks Deal, Byron Allen Joins as Partner". Variety. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
- ^ "Sinclair completes acquisition of regional sports networks from Disney". Bloomberg. August 22, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
- ^ "Fortebet ug Casino - Play Online on the Official Website". fortebets.ug. August 11, 2023. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- ^ Novy-Williams, Eben (November 19, 2020). "Bally's Buys Sinclair RSN Naming Rights As Part of Sports Betting Push". Sportico.com. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- ^ "Bally Sports, Coming March 31". YouTube (Fox Sports Midwest). March 17, 2021. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
- ^ "Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports Sun launches Wednesday, March 31". FOX Sports. March 31, 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- ^ Bouma, Luke (March 14, 2023). "Bally Sports Just Declared Bankruptcy – The Death of RSNs?". Cord Cutters News. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- ^ Fox Sports (October 21, 2014). "Florida to air all 82 Orlando Magic games in 2014-15". FOX Sports. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
- ^ Fox Sports (January 1, 2014). "About FOX Sports Florida and Sun Sports". FOX Sports. Retrieved July 20, 2015.