Bally Sports Sun is an American

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 ...

owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between

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, ...

and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local coverage of professional, collegiate and sporting events in the state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, with a focus on professional sports teams based in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

and Orlando. Bally Sports Sun and sister regional sports network Bally Sports Florida are headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with studios located in

. Bally Sports Sun is available on cable providers throughout Florida; it is also available nationwide on

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

via

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

History

The channel launched on March 4, 1988, as Sunshine Network, originally serving as an affiliate of

Prime Network Prime Sports (originally known as the Prime Sports Network (PSN), and also known as Prime Network or simply Prime) is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, op ...

. The network was formed as a joint-venture of 11 cable companies and

Home Sports Entertainment Bally Sports Southwest is a Texan regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group (a joint-venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios), and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional c ...

. Later that year, Sunshine would obtain rights to broadcast the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was establ ...

in their inaugural

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

. In 1992, the network would also secure right to another new team, the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play ...

. In its early years, the network also aired some public affairs programming in addition to sports. Because Florida did not have a

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 (A ...

team at the time, the network featured games from multiple teams including Rangers,

Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 afte ...

, Tigers, Orioles, and Twins, along with college sports from UCF,

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

, Stetson and Jacksonville Universities. In 1993, Sunshine gained rights to the Florida Marlins

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

. In 1997, half of the 70 game schedule was moved to rival SportsChannel Florida (which at the time was owned by Marlins' owner

Wayne Huizenga Harry Wayne Huizenga Sr. (; December 29, 1937 – March 22, 2018) was an American businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He founded AutoNation and Waste Management Inc., and was the owner or co-owner of Blockbuster Video, the Miami ...

). The following season, the entire schedule was moved to SportsChannel. In 1996,

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

, which formed a sports division for the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

in 1994 with the acquisition of the television rights to the

National Football Conference The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ( ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

, entered into a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with TCI spinoff

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula On ...

and rebranded that company's Prime Network affiliates under the "Fox Sports Net" banner. Sunshine Network was the only Fox Sports Net owned-and-operated charter outlet that did not rebrand under that name when it and the other Prime outlets relaunched as Fox Sports Net on November 1, 1996. Liberty Media (which at this point owned 49% of the network) proposed Fox Sports Sunshine as a new name for the network, but ultimately the rest of the owners did not approve it. In early 2000, Fox Sports Net programming moved from Sunshine to the newly rebranded Fox Sports Net Florida. Sunshine Network changed its name to Sun Sports on January 18, 2005, in order to reflect its sports-focused programming. Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida were spun off with the rest of the Fox Sports Networks and most of News Corporation's other U.S. entertainment properties into

21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, fo ...

in July 2013. On October 4, 2015, Sun Sports changed its name to Fox Sports Sun (FSSUN). On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies,

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 Octobe ...

announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports Networks from

, including Fox Sports Sun and sister network Fox Sports Florida. However, on June 27, 2018, the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. On May 3, 2019,

and Entertainment Studios (through their joint venture, Diamond Holdings) bought

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 Ma ...

from

for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019. On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation to serve as a new

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of ...

partner for the FSN channels. Sinclair announced the new Bally Sports branding for the channels on January 27, 2021. On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the 2021 Major League Baseball season, Fox Sports Sun and sister network Fox Sports Florida were rebranded as Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida, resulting in 18 other Regional Sports Networks renamed Bally Sports in their respective regions. The first live sports event on Bally Sports Sun was at 7 PM featuring the Miami Heat at the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first estab ...

. The game was preceded with the "Heat Live" pregame show.

Programming

Pre-Game Tampa Bay Lightning (27360590569) (cropped)

Bally Sports Sun holds the regional cable television rights to the NBA's Miami Heat, the NHL's

, and the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

. In addition, Bally Sports Sun offers

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

, baseball and other sanctioned sporting events from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

. Bally Sports Sun has long maintained a partnership with the University of Florida and Florida State, producing all regular season football game telecasts for both universities and airing them statewide on the channel on a day-behind basis. However, with the launch of the SEC Network, University of Florida programming now consists of GatorZone and coaches shows. Bally Sports Sun maintains separate feeds for individual regions of the state, with feeds for Miami (covering

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of ...

), Tampa (covering western Florida) and Orlando (covering northern and

central Florida Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the ...

). The separation of broadcast zones for the channel is mostly due to the defined broadcast territories set by the National Basketball Association for the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, and by the National Hockey League for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Programming seen in each broadcasting zone is common in most areas, and includes a mix of programs supplied by Bally Sports and some original programming exclusive to Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida. Bally Sports Sun is also home to outdoor programming, highlighted by extensive salt and fresh water fishing programs such as the Chevy Florida Insider Fishing Report and Sportsman's Adventures.

Programming rights with Bally Sports Florida

Bally Sports Sun shares the broadcast rights to the aforementioned professional sports teams with Bally Sports Florida. As the two regional networks are commonly owned, events from any team/conference in which Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida broadcasts are able to air on either channel depending on the start time of each team's respective games (particularly with the Marlins and Rays, since both teams routinely play at concurring start times). The two channels do not focus on one region of Florida (although it was long rumored since the two came under common ownership that Bally Sports Sun would carry only teams from the Orlando and Tampa Bay areas, while Bally Sports Florida would carry Miami-area teams), but simply distribute games in accordance with each team's territorial rights, with both cable channels maintaining joint exclusivity over regional broadcasts of Lightning, Heat, Marlins, Rays and the Magic, while Bally Sports Florida maintains exclusive regional rights to NHL games involving the Miami-based

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and initially played their home g ...

. In 2010, the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fra ...

moved all of their Major League Baseball games to Bally Sports Florida, while the Tampa Bay Rays began carrying all their games on Bally Sports Sun. Prior to 2009, some Rays games were available on

broadcast television Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. Analog television systems were standardized b ...

stations in the state via a network made up of the state's Ion Television stations.

Current personalities

Tampa Bay Rays

* Dewayne Staats – play-by-play announcer * Brian Anderson –

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

* Orestes Destrade – pre-game and post-game

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

Doug Waechter Douglas Michael Waechter (born January 28, 1981) is an American former professional baseball pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Florida Marlins and Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball. He graduated from Northeast High School and was th ...

– pre-game and post-game

* Rich Hollenberg - Pre and Post game host and fill-in play-by-play announcer * Kevin Burkhardt - fill-in play-by-play announcer (also a play-by-play announcer for

MLB on Fox ''MLB on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox MLB'') is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports, the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), since June 1, 1996. The broadcaster has aired the W ...

and

NFL on Fox The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by '' Fox NFL Kick ...

, and a studio host for

) * Tricia Whitaker - field reporter

Tampa Bay Lightning

* Dave Randorf– play-by-play announcer *

Brian Engblom Brian Paul Engblom (born January 27, 1955) is a Canadian ice hockey broadcaster for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and a former professional hockey defenseman. Biography Engblom was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and played for the University of Wiscons ...

– analyst * Paul Kennedy – host and in-game reporter * Bobby Taylor – pre, post-game and intermission analyst *

Dave Andreychuk David John Andreychuk (born September 29, 1963) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Light ...

– pre, post-game and intermission analyst

Florida Panthers

* Steve Goldstein – play-by-play announcer *

Randy Moller Randall W. Moller (born August 23, 1963) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He was drafted in the first round, eleventh overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1981 National Hockey League (NHL) entry draft. The majority of his ca ...

– analyst

Miami Marlins

Paul Severino Paul Severino (born October 5, 1983) is an American sportscaster and studio host appearing across MLB Network's programming, including ''MLB Tonight'', MLB Network's Emmy Award-winning daily studio show.Tommy Hutton - analyst * Craig Minervini – pre-game host and in-game reporter and Fill-in play-by-play announcer * J. P. Arencibia – pre and post-game analyst * Kelly Saco – pre-game host and Fill-in in-game reporter

Miami Heat

Eric Reid Eric Todd Reid Jr. (born December 10, 1991) is a former American football Safety (gridiron football position), safety. He played college football for LSU Tigers football, Louisiana State University (LSU), and received consensus College Football ...

– play-by-play announcer *

John Crotty John Kevin Crotty (born July 15, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'1" point guard from the University of Virginia, Crotty was undrafted, but played in 11 National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons from 1992 to 2003 ...

– analyst * Jason Jackson – post-game host and in-game reporter *

Ron Rothstein Ronald L. Rothstein (born December 27, 1942) is an American former professional basketball coach and college basketball player, who has led many different NBA teams. He served as the first head coach for the Miami Heat, and later coached the Det ...

– half-time and post-game analyst

Orlando Magic

* David Steele – play-by-play announcer * Jeff Turner – analyst * Paul Kennedy – host and in-game reporter * Dante Marchitelli – fill in in-game reporter

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1= {{Miami Heat {{Miami Marlins {{Orlando Magic {{Tampa Bay Lightning {{Tampa Bay Rays {{SBGI {{U.S. regional sports networks {{Tampa Bay TV {{Miami TV {{WPB TV {{Jacksonville TV {{Ft. Myers TV {{Tallahassee TV {{Fox Sports Networks {{Prime Network Sports television networks in the United States Sports in Florida Fox Sports Networks Television channels and stations established in 1988 Prime Sports 1988 establishments in Florida Bally Sports