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In a surprise to absolutely no one, it appears that Bally Sports North has lost more than half of its subscribers, in a ten-year span. According to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Bally Sports North had 2.9 million subscribers in 2013, and now that’s down to just 1.2 million subscribers.
Now, let’s put this in perspective, this is just one of the many RSNs that Bally Sports operates. And this decline likely started when Fox still owned it. Let’s also remember that Bally Sports North only airs three teams: Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild and the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are available in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Fairly small markets, all things considered.
It’s likely that the reason for this drop is due to cord-cutting. Not just users going to YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV, but instead cutting out cable altogether. And just sticking with Netflix, Hulu and maybe Paramount+.
On top of that Bally Sports removed its networks from most streaming services. Like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV. It had been removed from Fubo, but they recently made a move to bring Bally Sports back.
Making Bally Sports Bankruptcy no surprise
Earlier this month, Bally Sports’ parent-company, Diamond Sports Group, filed for bankruptcy. Which is what many of us expected, after hearing that they weren’t making money and also took on a lot of debt after buying the Fox Sports RSNs from Disney when they bought Fox.
Of course, removing the Bally Sports channels from most streaming services for almost two years before launching Bally Sports+ definitely did not help. But as of right now, Bally Sports is planning to continue broadcasting the games they have the rights to. They did drop the rights to five MLB teams earlier this month. Which those teams will be aired on MLB.TV for free.
The Bankruptcy is likely to take years to fully work through. But as of right now, it’s not looking good for RSNs.
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