Is This the Death of the Regional Sports Network?

By Steven Warshaw, Founder and Creative Director of Universal Sports Marketing

Every athlete, team executive, and league commissioner credits the fans for being an integral part of sports, and it’s looking more and more like lip service because it’s the fans who suffer when business doesn’t operate smoothly. Some can’t even watch their teams on TV.

When the Dallas Stars cut ties in early July with their local TV partner, Bally Sports Southwest, it was the latest sign that regional sports networks (RSNs) are going the way of the VCR: an antiquated way to watch something you love.

Only VCRs don’t see nearly as much legal action unless you’ve been taping “Night Court” reruns.

Diamond Sports Group, which operates Bally Sports channels, filed for bankruptcy in March 2023. Comcast, a bellwether for the cable industry, blacked out those channels in May and finally cut a deal to put them back on the air in August. The saga is the latest salvo as professional sports teams inevitably shift toward digital streaming.

Since 2018, traditional cable and satellite TV providers have lost roughly 38 million subscribers. Comcast’s customer base plummeted by 37% from the second quarter of 2019 through the second quarter of this year — a loss of just over 8 million subscribers, or about the population of New York City.

Even when factoring in virtual distributors like Hulu and YouTube TV, it’s still a bloodbath. More than 24 million homes have cut the cord entirely, leaving traditional TV looking as technologically relevant as a car phone.

This isn’t an indication that sports fans have disengaged — they are as loyal as ever. A recent survey from Hub Entertainment Research found that 79% of people care more about their favorite teams than anything else on TV, and 81% would sign up for a streaming service just to catch their games. Need proof? When the NFL streamed a Wild Card Weekend playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on Peacock in January, 23 million people tuned in — and NBCUniversal generated an estimated 2.8 million sign-ups, a record for the service.

Digital streaming has emerged as the natural medium for sports fans. Want to watch a game on your phone while you're pretending to work? Done. Need to see a replay because you fell asleep during overtime? You got it. It's like having a sports bar in your pocket, minus the sticky floors and shouting matches.

The challenge is that in the short term, teams will face a financing shortfall as they move away from traditional RSN models. Local media deals account for 23% of MLB teams' revenue; some franchises, like the Los Angeles Dodgers, who signed a 25-year agreement with SportsNet LA worth $8.35 billion in 2013, rely on these deals for more than 30% of their income.

Bridging this gap will require creativity and patience. Direct-to-consumer models offer new monetization avenues, and data-driven advertising and sponsorship opportunities promise to transform how teams and leagues make money. Want to buy a T-shirt or tickets? Just click on the ad scrolling below the action. In this new world of sports revenue, the only thing not for sale might be your soul — but hey, check back next season and it might be on the market.

The global reach of streaming platforms also opens up untapped markets and fan bases. Prime Video boasts 200 million monthly viewers across 240 countries and territories, so it's no wonder the NFL and NBA are letting Amazon deliver more than your impulse buys. The retail giant is paying $1 billion a year to stream "Thursday Night Football" and will be on the hook for $1.8 billion annually as part of the NBA's freshly signed media rights deal, proving Jeff Bezos really can buy anything.

Other tech giants are recognizing live sports' potential and making investments in top-tier professional leagues. Google's YouTube TV secured the rights to “NFL Sunday Ticket” before last season, and Apple TV+ carries two MLB games a week and nearly every MLS game. Netflix will take its first foray into live athletic broadcasts with a 10-year, $5 billion deal for WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” beginning in January.

As we look to the future of sports consumption, hybrid models that blend streaming and traditional broadcasts are likely to emerge. The Vegas Golden Knights' KnightTime+ service, which makes games available on local affiliates and digitally, offers a glimpse of this approach. This strategy caters to cord-cutters and TV viewers to maximize reach and engagement, and it appeals to the younger, mobile-first fans who are crucial to sports’ long-term health.

Make no mistake: Sports will remain the unshakeable bedrock of live entertainment for years to come. While viewers might binge-watch their favorite dramas or comedies at their leisure, there’s an electric urgency to sports that demands real-time engagement — especially in a society that too often emphasizes athletic accomplishment over everything. The communal experience of cheering alongside millions of other fans, virtually or in person, is a cultural phenomenon that transcends the medium. It’s why water cooler conversations still buzz with last night’s winning play and why social media explodes with every touchdown, home run, or buzzer-beater.

This unwavering devotion to live sports is precisely why broadcasters and streaming platforms are locked in a high-stakes bidding war for rights. They recognize that sports remain the last bastion of appointment viewing in an era of fragmented audiences and on-demand programming. The NFL’s stratospheric ratings — a staggering 120.3 million viewers tuned into Super Bowl LVIII on CBS in February, making it the most-watched program in U.S. TV history — and the fervor surrounding events like the NCAA’s “March Madness” basketball tournaments underscore a simple truth.

It’s not about whether fans will continue to watch, but how.