Bally Sports Southwest
Internet Protocol television |
Bally Sports Southwest is a
Bally Sports Southwest is available on
History
Bally Sports Southwest originally launched on January 4, 1983, as Home Sports Entertainment (HSE), a unit of
Like many Prime Sports-affiliated networks, it shared channel space with other networks on several cable providers in its service area (most often resulting in its programming being restricted to nighttime periods) until the early 1990s, when cable systems began upgrading their headend infrastructures to increase channel capacity, reassigning most of the cable channels that shared time with HSE to other channel slots once these upgrades were complete. In 1994, Liberty Media acquired HSE, converting it into an owned-and-operated affiliate of Prime Sports and changing its name to Prime Sports Southwest.
In 1996, News Corporation, which formed its own sports division for the Fox network two years earlier, acquired a 50% interest in the Prime Network from Liberty Media;[4] the network was officially rebranded as Fox Sports Southwest on November 1 of that year, as part of a relaunch of the Prime Network affiliates as the cornerstones of the new Fox Sports Net.[5] The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Southwest in 2000, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner.
In 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Southwest, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand, before reverting to the Fox Sports Southwest moniker in 2008. In 2007, a
On December 14, 2017,
Bankruptcy
On February 15, 2023, Diamond Sports Group, the owner of Bally Sports Southwest, failed to make a $140 million interest payment, instead opting for a 30-day grace period to make the payment.[10] On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[11]
During its bankruptcy, Diamond missed a payment to the Texas Rangers.[12] On April 5, 2023, the Rangers filed an emergency motion asking the bankruptcy judge to order Diamond to pay the Rangers fully or give its media rights back to Major League Baseball. Diamond argued that because of cord-cutting the contract rate for the media rights of the teams was too high. A hearing on the matter was set for May 31, 2023.[12][13] As an interim, on April 19, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond Sports to pay 50% of what the Rangers were owed.[14] On June 1, 2023, after a two day long hearing, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond to pay the Rangers fully within five days.[15]
Programming
Bally Sports Southwest holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to the
A mix of programs originally supplied by Bally Sports and some original programming exclusive to Bally Sports Southwest (such as High School Spotlight, ″High School Scoreboard Live″ and the Dallas Morning News-co-produced SportsdayOnAir) are also broadcast.
Coverage areas
Bally Sports Southwest has the second-largest market area and total viewer reach of any network in the Bally Sports regional networks group (behind Bally Sports South). Its expansive footprint extends from eastern New Mexico to Panama City, Florida. The network is divided into four broadcasting zones, each representing the five largest television markets in its designated broadcast region:
- Dallas-Fort Worth (including northern and north-central Texas, parts of West Texas, parts of East Texas, and northern Louisiana)
- Houston (southeast Texas, within the former coverage area of the defunct sub-feed Fox Sports Houston)
- El Paso, southern Texas, and parts of West Texas and eastern New Mexico)
- Arkansas
The separation of broadcast zones for the channel is mostly due to the defined broadcast territories set by the National Basketball Association for four of the region's five NBA franchises – the Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans (the Houston Rockets are carried on Space City Home Network). In the event of a scheduling conflict between either of the teams (such as Mavericks/Thunder, Mavericks/Spurs, Thunder/Spurs, and sometimes Mavericks/Spurs/Thunder), the games will be shown on their own subfeeds (Thunder on Bally Sports Oklahoma, Spurs or Mavericks on Bally Sports Southwest). In certain circumstances, games involving the Dallas Stars (the only National Hockey League team based in Texas) air on Bally Sports Southwest beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area, including the Houston market, which no longer receives any NBA broadcasts over Bally Sports Southwest.
Zone # | Region served | MLB | NBA | NHL | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Texas Rangers | St. Louis Cardinals (Bally Sports Midwest) |
Dallas Mavericks | San Antonio Spurs | Memphis Grizzlies (Bally Sports South) |
Oklahoma City Thunder (Bally Sports Oklahoma) |
Dallas Stars | ||
1 | Dallas–Fort Worth | |||||||
2 | Houston | |||||||
3 | San Antonio | |||||||
4 | Arkansas |
Other services
Bally Sports Southwest Extra
Bally Sports Southwest Extra (previously branded as "Bally Sports Southwest Plus") is an alternate channel feed of Bally Sports Southwest used to broadcast select events from teams to which Bally Sports Southwest holds the broadcast rights within the designated market in the event that two or more games scheduled to be broadcast on the channel are held simultaneously, requiring the overflow feed to carry games that cannot air on the main feed.[16]
Bally Sports Southwest streaming options
Bally Sports Southwest is not available on streaming services such as fubotv,[17] Sling, YouTubeTV, or Hulu + live TV,[18] though it is still available on DirecTV Stream only on the Choice package and above.
References
- ^ Settimi, Christina (March 21, 2012). "Baseball's Biggest Cable Deals". Forbes. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
- ^ Dachman, Josh (May 25, 2021). "Behind the Scenes at Sinclair's New Media Operations Center Powering Bally Sports, Marquee Sports, and YES Network". Sports Video Group. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ David Barron (January 5, 2003). "Regional TV venture grew into Fox Sports Southwest". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
- ^ R. Thomas Umstead (July 8, 1996). "Liberty Sports regionals will become Fox Sports net". Multichannel News. The Walt Disney Company. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
- ^ "FOX SPORTS NET DEBUTS ON NOV. 1". The Columbian. Columbian Publishing Company. Associated Press. September 13, 1996. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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 Southwest/Oklahoma/New Orleans FAQ". FOX Sports. FOX Sports Southwest. March 17, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
- Sports Business Journal. Leaders Group. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
- ^ Hayes, Dade (March 15, 2023). "Diamond Sports Group, Owner Of Bally Networks Once Run By Fox, Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy". Deadline. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
- ^ a b Grant, Evan (April 19, 2023). "Bally Sports Southwest parent company fails to make April rights payment to Rangers". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
- ^ McCann, Michael; Crupi, Anthony (April 18, 2023). "Diamond RSN's Missed Payments Spur Late May MLB Court Fight". Sportico. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
- ^ McCann, Michael; Crupi, Anthony (April 20, 2023). "Diamond RSNs Must Pay 50% To 4 MLB Teams In Bankruptcy Case, For Now". Sportico. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Gonzalez, Aiden (June 1, 2023). "Diamond Sports Group ordered to fully pay MLB teams' contracts". ESPN. Walt Disney Corporation. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
- ^ "TV/Radio Information". Official Dallas Stars Website. Dallas Stars. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
- ^ "What happened to my FOX Regional Sports Network?". Help Center. Archived from the original on May 29, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
- ^ Holt, Kris (October 22, 2020). "Hulu's live TV service loses Sinclair-owned regional Fox Sports networks". Engadget. Retrieved October 23, 2020.