 | |
| Type | Regional sports network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area | Florida Georgia South Alabama Nationwide (via satellite) |
| Network | FanDuel Sports Network |
| Headquarters | Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.[1] |
| Programming | |
| Languages | English Spanish (viaSAP) |
| Picture format | 720p (HDTV) 480i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Main Street Sports Group |
| Sister channels | FanDuel Sports Network Sun |
| History | |
| Launched | December 29, 1987 (37 years ago) (1987-12-29) |
| Former names | SportsChannel Florida (1987–2000) Fox Sports Net Florida (2000–2004) FSN Florida (2004–2008) Fox Sports Florida (2008–2021) Bally Sports Florida (2021–2024) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability (Some events may air on overflow feed FanDuel Sports Network Florida Plus due to event conflicts) | |
| Streaming media | |
| FanDuel Sports Network app | www (U.S. cable internet subscribers only; requires login from participating providers to stream content; some events may not be available due to league rights restrictions) |
| DirecTV Stream | Internet Protocol television |
| FuboTV | Internet Protocol television |
FanDuel Sports Network Florida is an Americanregional sports network owned byMain Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate ofFanDuel Sports Network. The channel broadcasts local sports coverage in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sports teams based inMiami,Tampa andOrlando.
FanDuel Sports Network Florida maintains production facilities and offices located in Fort Lauderdale,[1] alongside sister networkFanDuel Sports Network Sun. The channel is available oncable television providers throughout Florida, and in parts of southernAlabama andGeorgia; it is also available nationwide onsatellite viaDirecTV.
FanDuel Sports Network Florida was launched on December 29, 1987, asSportsChannel Florida. It was originally owned byRainbow Media (a subsidiary ofCablevision Systems Corporation), and was the fourth regional network ofSportsChannel America. The network originally featured coverage of local college teams, holding the broadcast rights to televise select games from theUniversity of Florida,Florida State University,University of Miami,University of South Florida andJacksonville University. In addition to national SportsChannel programming, the channel also showed a combined 100 baseball games that featured theNew York Yankees andNew York Mets fromSportsChannel New York, andChicago White Sox games broadcast bySportsChannel Chicago.[2]
In the spring of 1988, SportsChannel Florida obtained the regional cable television rights to broadcastNBA games from theMiami Heat, effective with the1988–89 season. In 1992, SportsChannel lost the television contract to the Heat to then-rivalSunshine Network. Heat games would return to the channel in the late 1990s when both networks came under the ownership of Fox Sports parentNews Corporation.
In 1996,Florida Panthers ownerWayne Huizenga purchased a 70% controlling interest in SportsChannel Florida, with Rainbow Media (by that time, ajoint venture between Cablevision andNBC) retaining a minority 30% interest. That led Huizenga to move theNHL franchise's game telecasts from Sunshine Network to SportsChannel Florida for the1996–97 season. The following year in 1997, SportsChannel Florida obtained the rights to theFlorida Marlins – also owned by Huizenga – which moved 35 games (half the schedule) from the Sunshine Network inthat year's Major League Baseball season, with all games moving the following season.[3] In 1998, SportsChannel Florida also gained the regional cable rights to theTampa Bay Devil Rays Major League Baseball expansion team.
Unlike the other networks that were members of the SportsChannel America chain, Huizenga's control of SportsChannel Florida prevented the channel from joiningFox Sports Net. Shortly after Cablevision and Fox Sports announced the merger in 1997, Cablevision ceased production of its national SportsChannel programming in favor of Fox Sports Net's programming (though the networks would not officially rebrand until early the next year). Since SportsChannel Florida did not have rights to the Fox Sports Net programming, SportsChannel Florida made an affiliation agreement withCNN/SI to carry its programming instead.[4] Cablevision finally repurchased Huizenga's share of the network in November 1999.[5] The network was relaunched asFox Sports Net Florida on March 1, 2000, making it the last SportsChannel network to adopt the Fox Sports Net brand. At this time Fox Sports Net programming was moved from the Sunshine Network (which Fox only had a minority-interest in) and CNN/SI programming was phased out.[6][7]
In February 2005, News Corporation acquired Cablevision's ownership stakes in Fox Sports Florida andFox Sports Ohio, following an asset trade in which Fox sold its interest in Madison Square Garden and the arena's NBA and NHL team tenants, theNew York Knicks andNew York Rangers, to Cablevision, in exchange for acquiring sole ownership of the two Fox Sports regional networks. News Corporationspun off most of its entertainment properties into21st Century Fox in July 2013.
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies,The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Florida. However, on June 27, 2018, theJustice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership ofESPN. On May 3, 2019,Sinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios (through their joint venture, Diamond Sports Group) boughtFox Sports Networks fromThe Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion.[8] The deal closed on August 22, 2019.[9] On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operatorBally's Corporation to serve as a newnaming rights partner for the FSN channels.[10] Sinclair announced the new Bally Sports branding for the channels on January 27, 2021.[11] On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the start of the2021 Major League Baseball season the next day, Fox Sports Florida and sister network Fox Sports Sun rebranded asBally Sports Florida andBally Sports Sun, which resulted in 18 other Regional Sports Networks renamed Bally Sports in their respective regions.[12] The first live sporting event on Bally Sports Florida will be the Marlins home opener against the Rays on April 1.[13]
On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports, the parent company of Bally Sports, filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy,[14] 30 days after they failed to make a $140M interest payment.[15] Diamond’s first-lien lenders will not be affected as part of the restructuring support agreement, but other creditors will convert their debt into equity. Diamond also plans to separate from Sinclair and become an entirely new entity.[16]
On July 2, 2024, Bally Sports Florida and theFlorida Panthers of the National Hockey League mutually agreed to terminate their broadcasting contract early. That same day, the Panthers announced a new broadcast deal with theE. W. Scripps Company'sScripps Sports, which would put games over-the-air on Scripps-ownedWSFL-TV inMiami andWHDT inWest Palm Beach.[17]
On October 16, 2024, it was revealed in a court filing that Diamond had reached a new sponsorship agreement withFanDuel Group, under which it intends to rebrand Bally Sports as theFanDuel Sports Network; on October 18, 2024, Diamond officially announced the rebranding, which will take effect October 21.[18][19] Under the agreement, FanDuel will have the option to take a minority equity stake of up to 5% once Diamond Sports exits bankruptcy. The branding will be downplayed within programming related to high school sports.[20][21]
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FanDuel Sports Network Florida holds the regional cable television rights to the NBA'sOrlando Magic and theMiami Marlins of Major League Baseball.
FanDuel Sports Network Florida shares the broadcast rights to the aforementioned professional sports teams withBally Sports Sun (with Miami Heat games transmitted to cable providers inSouth Florida, and Orlando Magic games aired exclusively on Bally Sports Florida[22] in Central and Northern Florida. The two channels do not focus on one region of Florida, but simply distribute games in accordance with each team's territorial rights, with both cable channels maintaining exclusivity over regional broadcasts of Heat, Marlins, Rays and Magic games.
The Miami Heat and Tampa Bay Rays are televised on FanDuel Sports Network Sun, while the Orlando Magic and Miami Marlins are televised on FanDuel Sports Network Florida. Additionally, each network televises exclusive shoulder programming highlighting the team, players and coaches on the corresponding network.[23]
For its first 21 years of existence, the channel was not available to most cable subscribers in the Orlando area, asBright House Networks, the largest cable system incentral Florida, refused to carry the channel. The conflict stemmed from the system's previous existence as Cablevision (a brand unaffiliated with theBethpage, New York-basedcable provider of the same name), and continued through its acquisition byTime Warner Cable and, later, Bright House. This issue did not change following Fox Sports' acquisition ofSun Sports, now known as Bally Sports Sun, which Bright House already carried on its Orlando area lineup, and continued even after the Orlando Magic moved half of the televised games in its schedule fromMyNetworkTVowned-and-operated stationWRBW (channel 65) to Fox Sports Florida in 2007.
Fox Sports Net's sister subsidiaryFox Television Stations had earlier purchased WRBW (then aUPN affiliate) in Orlando in 2001, followed by its purchase ofFox affiliateWOFL (channel 35) in 2002. On paper, this gave News Corporation – the corporate parent of the Fox Sports Networks at the time – the right to require Bright House to carry Fox Sports Florida as part of itsretransmission consent compensation agreement for carriage of WOFL and WRBW, but Fox chose not to exercise that right. Bright House would agree to carry Fox Sports Florida on its Orlando system, with the channel being added ondigital cable channel 50 on January 1, 2009. News Corporation and Bright House reached a new retransmission agreement on January 1, 2010, preventing both Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports from being dropped from the provider's central Florida system. Fox would want Bright House to return Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports to the provider'sOrlando service area on February 12, 2010.
Fox Sports Florida was also not available onComcast systems in theSarasota andTallahassee markets until 2006, and remains unavailable on Comcast'sLake County systems. Orlando Magic games aired on the channel areblacked out by Comcast in theJacksonville market.
