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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Louisiana Mississippi East Texas South Alabama Florida Panhandle Nationwide (via satellite) |
| Network | Bally Sports |
| Headquarters | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 720p (HDTV) 480i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Diamond Sports Group (Sinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios) |
| Sister channels | Bally Sports Southwest |
| History | |
| Launched | October 31, 2012 (2012-10-31) |
| Closed | October 21, 2024 (2024-10-21) |
| Replaced by | Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network |
| Former names | Fox Sports New Orleans (2012-2021) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
Bally Sports New Orleans was an Americanregional sports network owned byDiamond Sports Group (a joint-venture betweenSinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios), and operated as an affiliate ofBally Sports before it got renamed into theFanDuel Sports Network on October 21, 2024. Before the channel shut down in relation to Bally Sports' rebranding, the channel broadcast local coverage of professional and collegiate sports events withinNew Orleans and the state ofLouisiana.
Bally Sports New Orleans was available oncable providers throughout Louisiana,East Texas,South Alabama, theFlorida Panhandle, and most parts of southernMississippi (includingCox Communications,AT&T U-verse,Charter Spectrum,Suddenlink Communications andComcast), with an estimated regional reach of 2.5 million households with a paid television subscription; it was also available onsatellite viaDirecTV until services for the New Orleans channel shut down in 2024.[1][2]
The network quietly closed down on October 21, 2024 as the network's professional sports rights had been fully exhausted and moved to other venues. The Pelicans moved toGray Television's newGulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network, available over-the-air and streaming, withWVUE-DT as its flagship, while theDallas Stars already left the network for theVictory+ streaming service and theTexas Rangers will not have their rights renewed due to an opt-out with Diamond's bankruptcy.
The formation ofFox Sports New Orleans was announced on June 25, 2012, afterFox Sports Networks signed a new long-term agreement with the New Orleans Hornets (now theNew Orleans Pelicans) to broadcast theNBA team's games.[3] Fox acquired the regional cable television rights to the Hornets afterCox Sports Television declined to renew its contract with the team.[4] The channel launched on October 31, 2012, at the start ofthe New Orleans Hornets regular season that year; Fox Sports New Orleans broadcast 75 Hornets games during the first year of the team's agreement with the channel.[5]
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 New Orleans. 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 Holdings) boughtFox Sports Networks fromThe Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion.[6] The deal closed on August 22, 2019.[7] On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operatorBally's Corporation to serve as a newnaming rights partner for the FSN channels. Sinclair announced the new Bally Sports branding for the channels on January 27, 2021.[8] On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the2021 Major League Baseball season, Fox Sports New Orleans was rebranded asBally Sports New Orleans, resulting in 18 other Regional Sports Networks renamed Bally Sports in their respective regions.[9]
On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports, the parent company for Bally Sports, filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy,[10] 30 days after they failed to make a $140M interest payment.[11]
The network would soon meet its end starting with the July 3, 2024 announcement that theDallas Stars (which airs select games onto Bally Sports New Orleans) would terminate their deal with Bally Sports and later air their games for free onto theVictory+ streaming service. Then, on August 23, Diamond Sports announced they had secured new long-term agreements with both the NHL and NBA. The agreements will result in NHL teams having a 20 percent reduction in their rights fees and NBA teams having a 30 to 40 percent reduction in their rights fees. As part of the agreement in question with the NBA, however, the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks had their contracts with Diamond Sports ended (with the Pelicans later creating theGulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network withGray Television), leaving Bally Sports New Orleans without its big draw. Despite being a long-term deal, if Diamond Sports is unable to get a bankruptcy plan approved by the court, the NBA and NHL agreements will expire following the end of each league's 2024–25 season.[12][13] Not only that, but theTexas Rangers (which airs games on the New Orleans channel also) would have their own agreement with Bally Sports expire after the end of their 2024 season as well, thus leaving Bally Sports New Orleans without any professional teams to work with for airing games in the near future.
On October 16, 2024, it was revealed in a court filing that Diamond had reached a new sponsorship agreement withFanDuel Group, under which it intended to rebrand Bally Sports as theFanDuel Sports Network; on October 18, 2024, Diamond officially announced the rebranding, which would take effect October 21.[14][15] Under the agreement, FanDuel would have the option to take a minority equity stake of up to 5% once Diamond Sports exits bankruptcy. The FanDuel branding will be downplayed within programming related to high school sports.[16][17] With no professional rights remaining, the New Orleans iteration of the network quietly shut down on October 21, the day the new FanDuel rebranding took effect, becoming the second Diamond Sports Group-owned regional sports network to cease operations following the shutdown ofBally Sports Arizona on the exact date a year prior.
In addition to carrying the Pelicans' exhibition, regular season and early-round conference playoff games, Bally Sports New Orleans also airedMajor League Baseball games featuring theTexas Rangers and select broadcasts of theNHL'sDallas Stars televised by sister channelBally Sports Southwest. The network also formerly carried collegiate sporting events from theBig 12 Conference andSoutheastern Conference.[3]
In 2014, Fox Sports New Orleans began airing selectTulane Green Wave college football games, beginning with the September 9 matchup against theDuke Blue Devils.[18] From its foundation, it also reported that the channel would negotiate for the television rights to theNew Orleans Saints' team-related programs and events involving theLSU Tigers.[1] While they were successful in acquiring some LSU Tigers sports programming such as Tigers football, basketball, and volleyball, attempts to acquire Saints-related programming were unsuccessful.
On June 16, 2018, FSNO carried a group-stage game in theFIFA World Cup from Fox between theArgentina andIceland teams; WVUE-DT opted out of carrying the game due to issues with fulfilling their weeklyE/I educational programming requirements with the numerous World Cup matches airing that week through Fox.[19]
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