In 2020 Sinclair began making moves towards developing a streaming service to promote its sports interests with an uphill climb ahead of it. The company has been working for the past year to find a way to make its ownership of the former FOX sports RSNs into a profitable play for the broadcast company. Rebranded as Bally Sports the channels are carried by a number of major cable operators and are the home of a number of NBA, NHL, and MLB team broadcasts. Which teams are available to watch of course is based on where the customer lives. Unfortunately for cord-cutters, Bally sports is only offered on one streaming service and that service DirecTV Stream is much more like a traditional pay-TV service than popular streamers like Hulu With Live TV, YouTube TV, and even the sports heavy fubo TV.
A new agreement with the NBA will help make the future streaming service more viable in 16 major markets as it will offer live streaming of the regional teams for their markets. The included teams are;
- Atlanta Hawks
- Charlotte Hornets
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Dallas Mavericks
- Detroit Pistons
- Indiana Pacers
- LA Clippers
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Miami Heat
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Orlando Magic
- Phoenix Suns
- San Antonio Spurs
Bally sports has also worked out a deal to stream multiple NHL Hockey teams as it waits to resolve differences with MLB about its streaming rights. The NHL teams who will be available for streaming on the coming Bally Sports app include;
- Anaheim Ducks
- Arizona Coyotes
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Dallas Stars
- Detroit Red Wings
- Florida Panthers
- Los Angeles Kings
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- Tampa Bay Lightning
We will all be waiting to see just how much this app will cost as well as paying attention to whether the content will find its way onto other streaming services that already offer the rest of the sports people expect to find in a cable bundle.
