Your Guide to Bally Sports: How to Stream Online Without Cable

Bally Sports is the largest collection of regional sports networks (RSNs) in the US. They are essential for local MLB, NBA, and NHL fans. But it can be confusing to understand what’s available and where it’s offered. We’ve done all the work for you. Read on for all the details!

In a hurry? Only two streaming services offer the Bally Sports channels, but they are great ones:

Fubo

Known for its outstanding sports coverage, Fubo’s 150+ live TV channels provide a broad selection that appeals to most people. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.

DIRECTV STREAM

The king of RSNs, this is the streaming service for MLB, NBA, and NHL fans with its Choice Plan. New customers get a 5-day free trial with DIRECTV STREAM.

If you can’t watch your favorite sports because of your location, get ExpressVPN to access the content you deserve.

Understanding Regional Sports Networks (RSNs): Your Guide to Local Sports Broadcasting

Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) are an odd relic of the history of sports and TV. They are local channels that air most of the games of Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL).

For example, if you live in Oklahoma City, the only way to watch all the Thunder games is to sign-up with Bally Sports Oklahoma. You can get a subscription to NBA League Pass, but the Thunder games will be blacked out for you. That’s also generally true of games that air on national channels.

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If this seems crazy, that’s because it is! Just the same, RSNs provide great value to local sports fans. And it isn’t just professional sports. They also show games from local college and even high school teams.

The bottom line is simple: if you want to watch a lot of games played by your local professional sports teams, you need your local RSNs. And in most areas, that means Bally Sports.

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Streaming Bally Sports Channels: A Comprehensive How-To Guide

You have two primary options for streaming Bally Sports — especially if you are interested in MLB.

FuboTV and Bally Sports: A Perfect Match for Regional Sports Fans

Fubo is a sports-first streaming service with 150+ channels in its base plan including all the local affiliates (ABC, CBS, etc) and a broad selection of general “cable” channels. But of special note are the sports channels it offers including CBS Sports Network (CBSSN), ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, FS2, and a couple dozen channels from beIN Sports and TUDN.

It also provides all the Bally Sports channels throughout the nation. In fact, it offers all RSNs except for a couple in Los Angeles and New York. The cost is $91.98/mo if you get one RSN and $94.98/mo if you get two or more.

Additionally, Fubo comes with 1,000 hours of permanent cloud DVR storage and the ability to stream on up to 10 devices at once.

See our Fubo review for details.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

DIRECTV STREAM’s Choice Plan: A Haven for Bally Sports Enthusiasts

The second option is to get DIRECTV STREAM. It provides access to all the Bally Sports channels in addition to all the others. For example, Houston residents will get Bally Sports Southwest and Bally Sports Oklahoma as well as Space City Home Network (formerly AT&T SportsNet Southwest).

To get access to these RSNs, you must sign-up for the Choice plan for $108.99/mo. This includes 100+ other TV channels including 14 live sports channels: ACCN, B1G, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, FS1, Golf Channel, MLB Network, MotorTrend, NBA TV, SECN, Tennis Channel, and TVG.

DIRECTV STREAM also provides great features. You get an unlimited cloud DVR with a 9-month storage length. And you can stream on as many devices as you like, so it’s great for a large household.

For more information, see our DIRECTV STREAM review.

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How to Access the Bally Sports App With Your TV

You can also use the Bally Sports app directly. But in order to use it, you must sign in with your TV provider credentials for a subscription that grants you access. These can be provided from a number of services including:

The Bally Sports app is available for most devices including Amazon Fire TV, Android mobile, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, iOS (iPhone/iPad), Roku, Web browsers, and Xbox One gaming systems.

Get Bally Sports With Fubo!

Bally Sports+: The Direct-to-Consumer Service Offering Exclusive Sports Content

Note: At this point, Bally Sports+ has secured rights for the games of all covered NBA and NHL teams. But it has not secured rights to most MLB team games. Make sure that your teams will be available before signing up. Or go with Fubo.

In mid-2022, Bally Sports released its own direct-to-consumer streaming service. It is called Bally Sports+ (or Bally Sports Plus) and costs $19.99/mo or $189.99/yr. With it, you can stream the included channels through the Bally Sports app or on the website, BallySports.com.

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Evaluating Bally Sports+: Is the Subscription Service Worth Your Money?

There are definitely situations where Bally Sports+ is worth subscribing to. The best subscriber for Bally Sports+ is one in an area that only offers the Bally Sports channels and no other RSNs. But even there, it gives subscribers more choices and not any kind of savings. At its current price, it isn’t a great deal.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. Bally Sports+ is limited to its own RSNs. So viewers in Los Angeles would get Bally Sports SoCal and Bally Sports West but not Spectrum SportsNet or SportsNet LA. The only solution to such viewers is to go with DIRECTV STREAM.

You also wouldn’t get any national channels like ESPN. This issue can be solved by combining Bally Sports+ with Sling TV and an antenna. But to get the full extent of sports programming with ESPN, FS1, and USA Network, you’d need the Orange + Blue plan. If you want MLB Network and NBA TV, you need the Sports Plus add-on for $15/mo more. If you want CBS, you need Paramount+ for $11.99/mo more.

• $19.99: Bally Sports+
• $55.00: Sling Orange & Blue (or $60.00 if ABC is included)
• $15.00: Sports Extra
• $11.99: Paramount+ Premium
• $101.98: Total

At that amount, you’d be better off with Fubo ($91.98/mo) or even the DIRECTV STREAM Choice plan ($108.99/mo) where you’d have it all in one place with plenty of DVR storage and simultaneous screens.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

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The Ultimate List of Bally Sports Channels Featuring Major Sports Teams

There are 18 Bally Sports Channels. The vast majority provide access to the local MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.

The following table includes links to our pages as well as the teams of the 4 leagues that are covered. Note that there is crossover. There are many areas where you will receive more than one RSN.

Alternatively, not all teams are included in all regions. For example, Bally Sports Southwest is a very large region. Subscribers in San Antonio do not get access to Mavericks games and Dallas subscribers do not get Spurs games.

See our pages for the details about this.

Exploring Non-Bally Sports Regional Sports Networks (RSNs): What You Need to Know

Bally Sports provides the most RSNs but there are a number of other important RSNs.

Navigating the World of NBC Sports RSNs: A Fan’s Guide

The other major provider is NBC Sports. They offer the following:

Additionally, NBC Sports Washington was sold to Monumental Sports & Entertainment. It is now:

• Monumental Sports Network
  • Washington Wizards (NBA)
  • Washington Capitals (NHL)

All of these RSNs are offered in the base plans of Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV. DIRECTV STREAM offers all of these except for NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Because of the non-RSN channels offered and the lower price ($76.99/mo), we recommend Hulu + Live TV for those who want NBC Sports RSNs.

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Beyond Bally and NBC: The Major Regional Sports Networks You Should Know

All of the following RSNs are available from DIRECTV STREAM and Fubo except for Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum SportsNet LA, which are only available from DIRECTV STREAM. SportsNet New York is also available from Hulu + Live TV.

Note that the local channels that took over broadcasting from AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain are available from Fubo and DIRECTV STREAM.

The Evolution of Bally Sports: History, Availability, and Impact on Sports Broadcasting

Bally Sports is a collection of 18 RSNs. They are owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group via Diamond Sports Group. The name was licensed from Bally’s Corporation. Diamond acquired these channels when the US DOJ forced Fox Sports to sell them as a condition of being acquired by Disney.

There were originally 21 Fox Sports RSNs. But Fox Sports Carolinas and Fox Sports Tennessee were both shutdown. Tennessee’s coverage of the Grizzlies was moved to Bally Sports Southeast and the Predators coverage was moved to Bally Sports South. Similarly, Carolinas’ coverage of the Hornets moved to Bally Sports Southeast and Hurricanes coverage went to Bally Sports South. And in 2023, Bally Sports Arizona close.

Through 2019, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV STREAM, and YouTube TV all provided streaming access to these channels. But in 2020, Fubo, Hulu, and YouTube dropped them. This led to DIRECTV STREAM being the only live TV streaming service to offer Bally Sports for a couple of years.

But in early 2023, Fubo added Bally Sports, so there are now two options.

Sign Up for a Free Fubo Trial

Inside Bally Sports Programming: Live Sports, Shows, and Exclusive Content Revealed

The primary focus of each Bally Sports channel is to air live games of their affiliated MLB, NBA, and NHL teams. Along with these are pregame and postgame shows.

These are generally the only way for local fans to watch these games. For example, a Twins fan in Minneapolis can see most games only via Bally Sports North. (The exceptions are the small number of games that are shown exclusively on national channels like ESPN or streaming services like Apple TV+.)

Bally Sports channels also provide coverage of other leagues. WNBA games, for example, often appear on Bally Sports. So are other professional sports like boxing, volleyball, and surfing.

College football also shows up on Bally Sports channels. And notable high school athletic events like the Texas High School Football Championships also appear on Bally Sports.

Sometimes, Bally Sports channels will offer content from Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Stadium and Tennis Channel.

Finally, Bally Sports offers a collection of other sporting events like poker and fishing.

One thing that Bally Sports does not offer is NFL games. This is true of all RSNs. NFL games are broadcast on national channels. However, Bally Sports channels do offer some programming for NFL fans. They just don’t offer the games themselves.

Wrapping Up

Depending on where you live, you may need to get Bally Sports if you want to watch the local MLB, NBA, NHL, and (to a lesser extent) WNBA teams.

Fubo is our top choice for Bally Sports. Fubo allows you to try out its service with a free trial.

Get Bally Sports With Fubo!

FAQs

Will Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy affect broadcasts?

The owner of the Bally Sports channels, Diamond Sports Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 14, 2023. Their stated intent is to restructure and emerge as a “stronger company.” Whether that happens or not, the company currently has “$425 million of cash on hand to fund its business and restructuring.” So nothing should change for Bally Sports viewers for at least the current season — and potentially indefinitely.

Does Bally Sports show MLS games?

Through 2022, Bally Sports channels were the local broadcasters for many MLS teams. That all changed in 2023, when Major League Soccer took back control of its broadcasting rights. Now you can watch all the teams with MLS Season Pass. It costs $14.99/mo and has no blackout restrictions. Fans will probably want to get the yearly plan for $99.99.

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Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is Content Editor at HotDog.com. He specializes in streaming, sports, and technology. You can see his writing on low-budget and "weird" film at Psychotronic Review — and many other places.

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