Why You Can't Watch The LA Kings on Fox Sports West Anymore

Sinclair Group Bally's new streaming app
Why you can't watch Bally Sports on cable? How to watch sports on DirecTV Stream on iPhone, Android, AppleTV or Roku

If you’re a fan of one of 40 MLB, NBA, or NHL teams that play on a Fox Sports Regional Sports Network (soon to be Bally Sports) or YES Network, you used to have a number of options to stream your favorite team. But, over the past 18 months, Sling TV, fuboTV, YouTube TV, and Hulu + Live TV each dropped them from their Live TV Streaming Services. 


Most streaming services are still in disputes with Sinclair (parent company of FSN). Sinclair Considers Restructuring, Affecting Regional Sports Networks.  

It’s been just over a year since Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased 21 Fox regional sports networks through its subsidiary Diamond Sports Group for $9.6 billion. The company is now reportedly looking into restructuring, with an analyst calling the RSNs “Sinclair’s Achilles heel.” The company and its creditors have each brought in advisers to assist with restructuring talks.

Diamond Sports Group LLC is an American media and entertainment company operating as a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group and partnered with Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios. Sinclair formed the company with Allen to acquire 22 regional Fox Sports Networks affiliates and Fox College Sports from The Walt Disney Company, 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 networks have exclusive broadcasting rights to 42 professional teams (including 16 National Basketball Association teams, 14 Major League Baseball teams, and 12 National Hockey League teams), and the channels collectively generated $3.8 billion in 2018, across nearly 75 million subscribers.

Wall Street Journal reports that the company’s “regional sports business and its creditors are preparing for a possible restructuring of its roughly $8 billion debt load.” Sources for WSJ cite the lack of live sports programming during the pandemic and the loss of carriage deals as two of the largest issues Sinclair is facing with its regional sports networks. Sinclair has lost out on carriage deals with cable and streaming services including, most recently, Hulu dropping the channels.

fox sports regional map AT&T TV

How to Watch Sinclair-Owned Fox Sports RSNs Without Cable or Satellite on AT&T.  However, I just called AT&T and they were not sure if they had the regional networks for streaming.  What a mess!!!

When will Sinclair roll out the new app to replace Fox Sports Go?  Sinclair executive gives an update:  Sinclair prepares to roll out a new sports app this spring — which will replace Fox Sports Go — and bets big on a partnership with Bally's that will include in-game wagering options in some markets at some point, will it really be motivated to settle carriage disputes with streaming services that represent a small (though vocal and growing) part of their distribution base?

The NHL has also posted false information on their website which needs to be updated.  It is simply not possible to watch games on these devices if your cable provider has dropped Fox Sports Regional networks like Fox Sports West.  

How To Watch Blacked Out NHL Using a Free VPN.  Thousands are learning how to stream these games over NHL.com when games are blacked out regionally.  I don't think the Sinclair Broadcast Group understands the power and the passion of a hockey fan who wants to watch their favorite team.  This could come back and bite them as they start to launch their new Bally's streaming product. 

NHL web site false information Fox Sports Go

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