Bally Sports Southwest is a Texas-based regional sports network owned by

Diamond Sports Group Diamond Sports Group LLC is an American media and entertainment company operating as a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, and partnered with Entertainment Studios. The company operates Bally Sports, a group of regional sports channels which ...

(a joint-venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios), and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional, collegiate and high school sports events throughout the South Central United States. The network is headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of

Irving Irving may refer to: People *Irving (name), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters * Irving, the main character's love interest in Cathy (comic strip) * Lloyd Irving, the main protagonist in the ''Tales of Symphonia'' vide ...

, Texas, with master control hubbed at Bally Sports Networks' operations center in Atlanta, which houses master control operations for its regional networks in the Southeastern United States. Bally Sports Southwest is available on cable providers throughout much of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.

History

Bally Sports Southwest originally launched on January 4, 1983, as Home Sports Entertainment (HSE), a unit of

Warner-Amex Cable Paramount Media Networks (formerly known as Warner Cable Communications, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, MTV Networks, Viacom Media Networks, and ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks) is an American mass media division of Paramount Global tha ...

. As one of the first regional sports networks in

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, it served as the cable television home of professional and collegiate sports teams throughout Texas and surrounding states. In 1988, HSE became an affiliate of Prime Sports Networks. 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 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 One ...

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 Sports Division was one of the biggest sports retailers in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. The company was set up by Sir Tom Hunter in 1984 to sell trainers, initially from the back of a van. Hunter subsequently borrowed £5,000 from his f ...

for the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

network two years earlier, acquired a 50% interest in the Prime Network from Liberty Media; 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. 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

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

simulcast feed of Fox Sports Southwest, which broadcasts in the 720p format was launched. Initially, the channel did not provide a 24-hour simulcast but it broadcast various Mavericks (prior to the

2024–25 NBA season The 2024–25 NBA season is the upcoming 79th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season is planned to begin on October 22, 2024 and end on April 13, 2025. The NBA plans to stage an in-season tournament for the second ...

), Rangers, Spurs and Stars games (prior to July 6th, 2024), as well as several NCAA football and basketball games shown nationally on FSN and other programming distributed nationally by Fox Sports Networks in high definition. Today, nearly all programming is shown in HD. In July 2013, News Corporation spun off the Fox Sports Networks and most of its 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, f ...

. On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from 21st Century Fox as part of their acquisition of Fox, including Fox Sports Southwest. 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 also owned a stake in the Longhorn Network until its shutdown on June 30, 2024). On May 3, 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group 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 Mar ...

from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019, thus placing Fox Sports Southwest in common ownership with 17 Sinclair stations in Texas. On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation to serve as a new naming rights 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 The 2021 Major League Baseball season began on April 1, while the regular season ended on October 3. The postseason began on October 5. The World Series then began on October 26 and ended on November 2 with the Atlanta Braves defeating the Houston ...

, Fox Sports Southwest was rebranded as Bally Sports Southwest.

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. On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. During its bankruptcy, Diamond missed a payment to the Texas Rangers. 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. As an interim, on April 19, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond Sports to pay 50% of what the Rangers were owed. On June 1, 2023, after a two day long hearing, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond to pay the Rangers fully within five days. On July 3, 2024, Diamond Sports Group filed a motion requesting that its contract with the Dallas Stars be terminated. On July 8, the Stars subsequently announced that it would partner with A Parent Media Co. to stream all of its games for free via the team-run streaming service Victory+ beginning in the 2024–25 season. On August 23, 2024, Diamond Sports Group terminated its contract with the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

prior to the

. On September 6, 2024, the Mavericks had reached a multi-year deal with Tegna to broadcast their regionally televised games over-the-air on either

WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...

(Channel 8) or KMPX (Channel 29). In addition to the deal, 15 games will be simulcasted on both WFAA and KMPX.

Programming

Bally Sports Southwest holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to the San Antonio Spurs of the

NBA 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 St ...

and the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball. In addition, the channel holds the cable rights to the University Interscholastic League, carrying its Class 6A high school state championship games for

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 c ...

, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball and softball, and the 2A-5A high school football championships. Prior to their move to Las Vegas, Fox Sports Southwest had the rights to the

San Antonio Stars The San Antonio Stars were a professional basketball team based in San Antonio, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the Utah Starzz before the ...

of the WNBA. Prior to their move to Henderson, Fox Sports Southwest also carried select games from the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. 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 ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...

''-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 Bally Sports South (BSSO) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports Networks. The network carries regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events from across ...

). 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 Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

(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) * San Antonio (including

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, 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

(prior to the 2024-25 season), Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their hom ...

(the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

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).

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.

Bally Sports Southwest streaming options

Bally Sports Southwest is not available on streaming services such as fubotv, Sling, YouTubeTV, or Hulu + live TV, though it is still available on DirecTV Stream only on the Choice package and above.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1= {{Dallas Mavericks {{Dallas Stars {{San Antonio Spurs {{Texas Rangers {{SBGI {{Dallas-Fort Worth TV {{U.S. regional sports networks {{Fox Sports Networks {{Prime Network FC Dallas Television channels and stations established in 1983 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023 1983 establishments in Texas Texas Rangers (baseball) Dallas Mavericks San Antonio Spurs Bally Sports