Diamond Sports Group LLC is an American

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

and entertainment company operating as a subsidiary of

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

, and partnered with

Entertainment Studios Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and d ...

. The company operates

Bally Sports The Bally Sports Regional Networks are a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. The naming rights to the network we ...

, a group of regional sports channels which was formerly known as the

Fox Sports Networks Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

History

formed the company with

Byron Allen Byron Allen Folks (born April 22, 1961) is the founder of the U.S. entertainment company Entertainment Studios which includes The Weather Channel. He is also a television producer, philanthropist, and comedian in his younger years. Notable s ...

to acquire 22 regional

affiliates and

Fox College Sports Stadium College Sports (formerly Fox College Sports) is a group of three American sports networks. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (under the joint venture Diamond Sports Group), the three channels air college and hi ...

from

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, which was required to divest of these networks to secure government antitrust approval. The transaction, initially valued at $10.6 billion, is managed through a joint venture called Diamond Holdings Group, and formally closed the transfer in August 2019 for $9.6 billion. The company's

regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...

s have exclusive broadcasting rights to 42 professional teams (including 16

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

teams, 14

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

teams, and 12

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

teams), and the channels collectively generated $3.8 billion in 2018, across nearly 75 million subscribers. Sinclair took a $4.23 billion write-down of its regional sports assets in 2020 after a downturn in the business. On November 18, 2020, Sinclair announced that it had entered into an agreement with casino operator

Bally's Corporation Bally's Corporation is a gaming, betting, and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. It owns and operates 15 casinos across ten states, a horse track in Colorado, and online sports betting operations in 14 st ...

to acquire the naming rights under a 10-year deal. On January 27, 2021, Sinclair announced that the networks would be rebranded as

on March 31. In December 2021, the company reached an extension agreement with the National Hockey League. On June 23, 2022, Bally Sports soft-launched a direct-to-consumer service known as

Bally Sports Plus The Bally Sports Regional Networks are a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. The naming rights to the network w ...

(or Bally Sports+) in selected markets. It is expected to launch nationally in the remainder of the networks' footprint on September 26.

References

{{SBGI Mass media companies of the United States Television broadcasting companies of the United States American companies established in 2019 Mass media companies established in 2019 American corporate subsidiaries Bally Sports Fox Sports Networks Joint ventures Entertainment Studios Sinclair Broadcast Group