Sinclair Closes On 21 Regional Sports Networks

Twenty-one local sports networks that used to belong to 21st Century Fox — and carried games from the Miami Heat to the Atlanta Braves — are now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The NY Post report the transfer means Sinclair’s Diamond group is now the country’s largest collection of regional sports networks, with a footprint that includes exclusive local rights to 42 professional teams. The portfolio consists of 14 Major League Baseball teams, 16 National Basketball Association teams and 12 National Hockey League teams.

Sinclair has already signaled its interest in acquiring more RSNs, particularly the four that AT&T is expected to sell. CEO Chris Ripley told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the company would be “very interested in looking at those and filling out our regional sports network footprint.”

Sinclair agreed to buy the RSNs for $10.6 billion — or $9.6 billion adjusted for minority interests — in May. It then set up Diamond Sports Group to hold the networks and brought in Entertainment Studios’ Byron Allen as an equity and content partner in the newly formed subsidiary.

Sinclair’s deal, which was carried out with Fox’s new owner Disney, did not include the YES Network, the New York-based sports network that carries Yankee games. Although Fox was also its majority owner, it was sold in a separate transaction to the Yankees for an estimated $3.5 billion. Sinclair participated in that transaction as minority partner, however, along with Amazon and several investments firms.