Sinclair New DTC Sports Service Hoping For 10M Streaming Subs

New details have emerged related to the announcement on January 13 that Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary Diamond Sports Group had signed a deal with the NBA to allow the nation’s largest owner of Regional Sports Networks to stream games over a new yet-to-be-named Direct To Consumer (DTC) product. At the same time, Forbes reports it announced it is raising $600 million to fund the DTC expansion.

Sinclair Broadcast Group on January 13 filed an 8K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which it laid out forecasts on the low end of 3.4 mil. streaming subs and another 2.4 million “feature” subs (which get a betting app but with no live games) by 2027, and on the high end 9.7 mil. streaming subs plus 6.4 mil. “feature” subs during the 5+ years of the projections.

Chris Ripley

The forecasts of between 5.9 million average paying subs and 16.1 million average paying subs by 2027. This would be boosted by 9.6 million free users (getting the product as a perk from their multichannel provider). As a result, they would have between 15.5 and 25.7 million average subscribers by 2027 which could generate as much as $500 million/year in advertising revenue in addition to the forecasted subscription fees.

Although the forecasts shown in the SEC filing are only based on existing rights, it’s likely that they Diamond Sports Group will have to add more league rights to get to the high-end of the projections of more than 16 million average paid subscribers. 

Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley told The Wall Street Journal that the company plans to do a soft launch as soon as the second quarter with a full roll out in Q3. That means executives will likely be working furiously to line up deals with other sports leagues to beef up its offering which now includes 16 NBA Teams, 12 NHL Teams and an undisclosed number of markets where it has NFL rights.