Country | United States |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Oklahoma Nationwide (via satellite) |
Network | Bally Sports |
Headquarters | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
Programming | |
Language(s) | English |
Picture format | 720p (HDTV) 480i (SDTV) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Diamond Sports Group (Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios) |
Sister channels | Bally Sports Southwest |
History | |
Launched | October 29, 2008 |
Links | |
Website | www |
Availability | |
Streaming media | |
Bally Sports app | www.ballysports.com/ (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 |
Bally Sports Oklahoma is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group (a joint-venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios), and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel provides statewide coverage of sports events within the state of Oklahoma, namely the Oklahoma City Thunder, the state's major college sports teams, and high school sports. Bally Sports Oklahoma is available on cable providers throughout Oklahoma, and nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
Fox Sports Oklahoma (FSOK) launched on October 29, 2008, as a spinoff of Fox Sports Southwest. It was created in order to serve as the cable broadcaster of the Oklahoma City Thunder, after Fox Sports Southwest acquired the broadcast rights to the NBA franchise following its relocation to Oklahoma City that year from Seattle. [1]
It initially split the rights to Thunder game telecasts with independent station KSBI (channel 52, now a MyNetworkTV affiliate), under an agreement in which Fox Sports Oklahoma would produce a limited schedule of regular-season games (most of which aired on weekends) for the station; the Thunder signed a new multi-year broadcast agreement with Fox Sports Oklahoma on August 3, 2010, rendering the team's games cable-exclusive beginning with the 2010-11 season. [2]
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 from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Oklahoma. However, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of ESPN. On May 3, 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (through their joint venture, Diamond Holdings) bought Fox Sports Networks from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. [3] The deal closed on August 22, 2019, thus placing Fox Sports Oklahoma in common ownership with Sinclair stations KOKH-TV/KOCB in the network's homebase of Oklahoma City, and KTUL in Tulsa. [4] It was subsequently renamed Bally Sports Oklahoma on March 31, 2021. [5]
On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. [6]
In addition to holding the regional television rights to Thunder's regular season and any early-round playoff games, Bally Sports Oklahoma also holds exclusive broadcast rights to state football, basketball and baseball championships held by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. Bally Sports Oklahoma has broadcast Class A-6A Football Championship games and periodically runs OSSAA Championship Spotlight, a magazine program that highlights various high school sports depending on the time of year. [7]
Bally Sports Oklahoma also broadcasts pre-game and post-game shows for the Oklahoma City Thunder (under the Thunder Live banner), and Oklahoma Sooners-related programs (such as coaches' shows and team magazine programs). Outside of programming exclusive to Bally Sports Oklahoma, the channel runs various programs supplied by Bally Sports Southwest (including sports interview, magazine and analysis programs focusing on Texas sports) as well as some game telecasts including Texas Rangers baseball and Dallas Stars hockey.
From 2012 to 2022, it held tier 3 rights to the Oklahoma Sooners of the Big 12 Conference under the Sooner Sports TV branding, [8] which gave it rights to one football game per-season, four men's basketball games per-season, and other selected athletics events. The football game was not aired on the channel itself, but distributed via pay-per-view—an arrangement that proved controversial among fans. In 2022, the team signed with ESPN+, which holds the tier 3 rights to all other Big 12 teams (besides the Texas Longhorns, which have a separate deal with ESPN to run the regional sports network Longhorn Network). [9] [10] [1] [11]
Bally Sports Oklahoma Extra is an alternate feed of Bally Sports Oklahoma used to broadcast select events within the designated market that cannot air on the main feed due to scheduling conflicts. [12]
Bally Sports Oklahoma Extra primarily serves an overflow feed in the event that teams whose games Bally Sports Oklahoma has the right to broadcast play conflicting games simultaneously, mainly those that are televised on Bally Sports Southwest that may otherwise also air on Bally Sports Oklahoma (such as Texas Ranger Baseball or Dallas Star Hockey) are scheduled to be held at the same time as the scheduled telecast of a Thunder or Sooners game, or a high school or collegiate sporting event involving an Oklahoma team.
On some cable systems in Oklahoma, Bally Sports Oklahoma Extra airs St. Louis Cardinals telecasts from Bally Sports Midwest and select Kansas City Royals telecasts from Bally Sports Kansas City to the fans of those teams living in Oklahoma who otherwise cannot receive Cardinals or Royals games on Bally Sports Midwest and Bally Sports Kansas City. In extremely rare times, telecasts from the 2 teams can possibly also air on Bally Sports Oklahoma as well depending on the schedule. Bally Sports Oklahoma Extra also carries select Dallas Mavericks telecasts from Bally Sports Southwest except in the immediate Oklahoma City area.
Bally Sports Sun is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local coverage of professional, collegiate and sporting events in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Miami, Tampa and Orlando. Bally Sports Sun and sister regional sports network Bally Sports Florida are headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with studios located in Tampa.
Bally Sports South (BSSO) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports Networks. The network carries regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events from across the Southern United States, along with other sporting events and programming from Bally Sports.
Bally Sports Ohio is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and is operated as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events in the state of Ohio, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Cleveland and Cincinnati, which are broadcast on separate programming feeds, as well as Columbus.
Bally Sports Great Lakes is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel, which is a sister network to Bally Sports Ohio, broadcasts statewide coverage of professional, collegiate and high school sports events throughout northern Ohio, including the Cleveland area.
Bally Sports West is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as part of Bally Sports, along with its sister network Bally Sports SoCal. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events in California, focusing primarily on teams based in the Greater Los Angeles area. Bally Sports West is available on cable providers throughout Southern California, the Las Vegas Valley and Hawaii; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
Bally Sports Florida is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local sports coverage in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Miami, Tampa and Orlando.
Bally Sports Southeast (BSSE) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the southeastern United States, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Atlanta, Tennessee, and Charlotte.
Bally Sports North is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focus on professional and collegiate sports teams based in Minnesota.
Bally Sports Midwest is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional event coverage of sports teams throughout the Midwestern United States, most prominently, professional sports teams based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bally Sports Southwest is a Texas-based regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional, collegiate and high school sports events throughout the South Central United States. The network is headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Irving, Texas, with master control hubbed at Bally Sports Networks' operations center in Atlanta, which houses master control operations for its regional networks in the Southeastern United States.
Bally Sports Wisconsin (BSWI) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. Operating as the "Wisconsin" sub-feed of Fox Sports North until 2007, the channel was known as Fox Sports Wisconsin until 2021. It broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the state of Wisconsin, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Milwaukee, namely the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball and the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association. It primarily operates from a studio/office facility in downtown Milwaukee, with secondary offices and production studio/office hub based in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Major League Baseball games not broadcast exclusively by its media partners are televised by regional sports networks, which present sports programming of interest to their respective region. Most MLB broadcasters are members of chains such as NBC Sports Regional Networks and Bally Sports, although several teams are broadcast by regional networks that are independent of these chains. Some teams own partial or majority stakes in their regional broadcaster.
Bally Sports Arizona (BSAZ) was an American regional sports network (RSN). The channel broadcast professional, collegiate and high school sports events, with a primary focus on Phoenix-area teams. It was available on most cable providers throughout Arizona and available nationwide on satellite provider DirecTV.
Bally Sports Kansas City (BSKC) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts coverage of professional, collegiate, and high school sports events both within and outside the Kansas City area. It maintains offices at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
Fox Sports Tennessee (FSTN) was an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcast regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events in the state of Tennessee, namely the Memphis Grizzlies and Nashville Predators.
Bally Sports Indiana (BSIN) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local professional and high school sports coverage throughout the state of Indiana, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Indianapolis, namely the NBA's Indiana Pacers.
Longhorn Network (LHN) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield, and is operated by ESPN. The network, which launched on August 26, 2011, focuses on the Texas Longhorns varsity sports teams of the University of Texas at Austin.
Bally Sports New Orleans is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local coverage of professional and collegiate sports events within New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.
The Bally Sports Regional Networks are a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Allen Media Group. The naming rights to the network were sold to casino operator Bally's Corporation.
Major League Baseball on Fox Sports Networks refers to Major League Baseball television coverage on the former chain of Fox Sports regional networks.