 | |
| Type | Regional sports network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area | Georgia Tennessee Alabama Mississippi South Carolina parts ofNorth Carolina includingAsheville,Charlotte, andWinston-Salem Nationwide (via satellite) |
| Network | FanDuel Sports Network |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 720p (HDTV) 480i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Main Street Sports Group |
| Sister channels | FanDuel Sports Network South |
| History | |
| Launched | October 13, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-10-13) |
| Replaced | Turner South |
| Former names | SportSouth (2006–15) Fox Sports Southeast (2015–21) Bally Sports Southeast (2021–24) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability (Some events may air on an overflow feed 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 Southeast is an Americanregional sports network owned byMain Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate ofFanDuel Sports Network. Headquartered inAtlanta,Georgia, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout thesoutheastern United States, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Atlanta,Tennessee, andCharlotte.
FanDuel Sports Network Southeast is available oncable providers throughoutGeorgia,Tennessee,Alabama,Mississippi,South Carolina and parts ofNorth Carolina (roughly fromAsheville to Charlotte); it is also available nationwide onsatellite viaDirecTV. The channel's programming reaches an estimated 8.9 million cable and satellite subscribers.
The channel traces its history toTurner South, a cable and satellite television channel that was launched on October 1, 1999,[1] by theTurner Broadcasting System. It was the first regional entertainment network developed especially for viewers in the southern U.S., featuring a mix ofmovies,comedy and drama series, regional news updates, and unique original programming. The channel also aired professional sports events featuringAtlanta Braves ofMajor League Baseball, theNational Basketball Association'sAtlanta Hawks, and theNational Hockey League'sAtlanta Thrashers, all of which were owned by Turner at the network's launch and the former two of which also aired in the Atlanta market and nationwide on Turner-ownedTBS.
Turner Broadcasting/Time Warner restricted Turner South's distribution to its designated broadcast territory in the southeastern United States, with satellite providers that carried the channel being required toblack out the channel in areas not covered by theZIP codes in Turner South's coverage area.
News Corporation filed a lawsuit against Turner Broadcasting and its corporate parentTime Warner in a Georgia Superior Court on June 15, 1999, citing that the plans Turner had unveiled to carry sports events on Turner South violated anon-compete agreement that the two companies signed as part of News Corporation's $65 million purchase of the original SportSouth in 1996, which prohibited Turner from launching a regional sports network in the southeastern United States until 2008.[2][3]
On February 23, 2006,Fox Sports Net's then-parent company News Corporation, looking to further expand its roster of sports teams and events, purchased Turner South for $375 million.[4][5] The deal included all existing sports contracts, involving teams that sister network-to-be FSN South (nowBally Sports South) also held the regional cable television rights to broadcast.
After the deal was completed, FSN sought a new name for the channel, with network officials eventually chose to rebrand it asSportSouth, after coming up with about 60 different suggestions. The SportSouth name was originally used as the name for what is now Bally Sports South, which was founded by Turner Broadcasting in 1990 and was purchased by News Corporation's Fox Cable Networks unit in 1996, becoming a charter outlet of Fox Sports Net. Under Turner ownership, the original SportSouth carried Braves and Hawks games, as well as NBA games from the Charlotte Hornets,World Championship Wrestling events, college sports and somesyndicated programs.
Turner South officially relaunched as SportSouth on October 13, 2006, becoming the 15th regional sports network owned as part of Fox Sports Net; the rebrand took place with its first official event broadcast: an NHL game between the Atlanta Thrashers and theCarolina Hurricanes. The relaunched channel dropped all non-sports entertainment programming, replacing it with other regionally produced programs and national sports news, documentary and magazine programming sourced by FSN. On-air promotions for SportSouth included sports figures native to the South such asSteve Spurrier,Bob Hartley,Bo Jackson andHeath Shuler.
Originally, the two networks only shared broadcast rights to Atlanta-based teams, while FSN South exclusively broadcast games from the NBA'sMemphis Grizzlies, Major League Baseball'sBaltimore Orioles and the NHL'sCarolina Hurricanes andNashville Predators. However, FSN South and SportSouth gradually began sharing rights to sports events from other teams during the late 2000s. In 2008, select Major League Baseball games from theCincinnati Reds andSt. Louis Cardinals were added to SportSouth's schedule (via sister networkFSN Midwest), subject to league territorial restrictions. This ensures that both those teams and the Predators have the maximum number of games able to be televised.
In August 2007, News Corporation lifted SportSouth's regional blackout restrictions, allowing the channel to be carried nationwide byDirecTV on its "Sports Pack"; however, some professional sporting events are still subject to blackout restrictions imposed by the major sports leagues for national telecasts.[citation needed] On August 28 of that year, SportSouth acquired the television rights toTennessee Volunteers sporting events, in a package that includes encore presentations of twelvefootball games, live telecasts of fourmen's basketball games, fourwomen's basketball games and six Olympic sporting events, as well as rights to the team's coaches shows for the former three sports.
The Atlanta Braves' relationship with SportSouth andindependent stationWPCH-TV (channel 17) – which until October 2007, served as the local broadcast version of TBS – intersected in 2011, when sister network Fox Sports South began producing an annual package of Braves games for the station that were not broadcast by the two networks. On March 1, 2013, Fox Sports South and SportSouth announced that they would acquire the rights to the 45 games, ending the team's contract with WPCH-TV beginning with the2013 season, marking the first season in 40 years that the team's game telecasts did not air in the Atlanta market on broadcast television until 2025, when WPCH-TV returned to airing selected games as simulcasts from the cable channel.[6]
On August 24, 2015, Fox announced that SportSouth would be rebranded asFox Sports Southeast. The name change took effect six weeks later on its target date of October 5.[7]
Fox Sports Networks senior vice president and general manager Jeff Genthner felt that the re-branding of FSN South as Fox Sports South may have caused viewer confusion due to the similar names.[8] Consumer research conducted in the Charlotte,Memphis and Atlanta markets found that viewers were confused about the autonomy of Fox Sports South and SportSouth, the latter network's relation to the Fox Sports regional networks, and perceived that Fox Sports South had better programming.[8] Network management reportedly had been considering a name change for the channel since 2012, including the use of a numerical brand for SportSouth (similar to that used by national sister networksFox Sports 1 andFox Sports 2), and color-code branding (with the main network as "Fox Sports South Red" and the secondary network as "Fox Sports South Blue").[8][9]
On August 22, 2019, the Fox Sports Networks were sold toSinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios via the joint ventureDiamond Sports Group.[10][11] Fox divested its regional sports networks under antitrust grounds as part of theacquisition of21st Century Fox byThe Walt Disney Company.[12]
On March 31, 2021, the channel, along with all other FSN channels, was rebranded under the newBally Sports brand.[13][14]
On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports filed forChapter 11 Bankruptcy.[15]
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 took effect October 21.[16][17] Under the agreement, Bally's regional networks were rebranded with corresponding names such as FanDuel Sports Network South, etc.
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2025) |
FanDuel Sports Network Southeast and FanDuel Sports Network South hold the exclusive regional cable television rights to theAtlanta BravesMajor League Baseball franchise; theAtlanta Hawks,Charlotte Hornets andMemphis Grizzlies of theNBA and theCarolina Hurricanes andNashville Predators of theNHL.[1]
| MLB | NBA | NHL | WNBA | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta Braves | Cincinnati Reds (FanDuel Sports Network Ohio) | St. Louis Cardinals (FanDuel Sports Network Midwest) | Atlanta Hawks | Charlotte Hornets | Memphis Grizzles | Indiana Pacers (FanDuel Sports Network Indiana) | New Orleans Pelicans (Bally Sports New Orleans [before 2024]) | Carolina Hurricanes | Nashville Predators | Atlanta Dream | ||
| Network(see note) | South/Southeast | South/Southeast | South/Southeast | Southeast | Southeast | Southeast | South | South | South | South | South/Southeast | |
| Georgia | (all markets including Atlanta) |  |  | | | | | | | | | |
| Alabama | (excluding Huntsville and Mobile) | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Huntsville | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mobile | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Kentucky | (excluding Western Kentucky) | | Available on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio | | | | | | | | | |
| Western Kentucky | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mississippi | (excluding Biloxi/Gulfport, Memphis and New Orleans) | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Biloxi/Gulfport | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Northern Mississippi (Memphis) | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| North Carolina | Charlotte, Asheville(excluding Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties) | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Greensboro-High Point | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Greenville | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Raleigh-Durham | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| South Carolina | Charleston, Augusta, Savannah, Greenville/Spartanburg(Abbeville, Anderson, and Oconee counties only) | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Columbia, Greenville/Spartanburg(excluding Abbeville, Anderson, and Oconee counties), Myrtle Beach | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tennessee | Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Memphis, Jackson | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Note: In Kentucky, most of North Carolina, and parts of Mississippi, FanDuel Sports Network Southeast is not available. In these areas all games are shown on FanDuel Sports Network South or an alternate channel.
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
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