For decades, regional sports networks (RSNs) were the financial backbone of American sports franchises. They delivered steady revenue through long-term broadcasting deals, built on the assumption that fans would keep paying for bloated cable bundles. But the shift to streaming has gutted this foundation—and many teams are scrambling to fill the gap.
Diamond Sports Group, which owns Bally Sports and once controlled the rights to over 40 teams across MLB, NBA, and NHL, filed for bankruptcy in 2023. As subscriber numbers plummeted, the economics of local sports broadcasting unraveled. Cord-cutting hit RSNs particularly hard, since their profitability depended on being bundled into cable packages most viewers never wanted. Once consumers had the option to skip them, they did.
The consequences are already visible. Teams that once enjoyed guaranteed revenue are suddenly in uncharted territory. The San Diego Padres were the first to lose their RSN partner mid-season, with Major League Baseball stepping in to broadcast games directly. Others, like the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, followed. The solution has been a patchwork of league-run streams, YouTube broadcasts, and stopgap licensing arrangements—none of which offer the same financial security.
This has exposed a deeper issue: many franchises had grown reliant on RSN money to justify inflated player salaries and ballooning front-office costs. Without it, budgets tighten quickly. Some clubs are now reconsidering long-term contracts, deferring infrastructure upgrades, or exploring equity partnerships to raise cash. In a cruel twist, the very same private equity firms reshaping team ownership (see: Arctos, RedBird) are also swooping in to acquire media assets.
Fans, meanwhile, are caught in the middle. The promise of “more flexible” access has been underwhelming. Blackouts still exist. Platform fragmentation means watching a single team might require three or four subscriptions. And the nostalgia of tuning in to a familiar local broadcast crew is fading fast.
But the market is correcting. Leagues are exploring centralized rights deals and direct-to-consumer models that cut out the middlemen entirely. In the long run, this could create more consistency and pricing transparency. In the short term, the RSN collapse is a financial reckoning for teams that mistook guaranteed TV money for permanence.