Providers will drop NBC sports networks
How’s this for a sports fan’s nightmare: Imagine being told that in a month you’ll no longer be able to watch Giants, Warriors, A’s or Sharks games on your television or devices.
For Dish Network and Sling TV viewers, no imagination is needed — their reality is the plug will be pulled on almost all of those games April 1.
Because of a breakdown in negotiations between those services and NBC Sports Regional Networks, subscribers of Dish and Sling TV were notified Tuesday that NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California won’t be available to them.
Coincidentally, the Dish and Sling TV blackout begins on Opening Night for both the Giants and A’s.
A spokesperson for Sling TV released a statement saying the company could no longer justify carrying the Regional Sports Networks on its platforms because of the rising carriage fees NBC now requires.
“The Regional Sports Network (RSN) model is fundamentally broken. At DISH TV and Sling TV, we love sports and we love sports fans, but we have to think of all customers. Each contract cycle, the price for RSNs goes up, but only a small fraction of our customers watch those channels to any meaningful degree. We want to carry these sports channels so that fans can watch the games — at a fair price and using a fair model,” the company said.
The statement also said Dish and Sling are open to continuing negotiations aimed at a more palatable agreement for both sides.
However, Bay Area customers may not want to hold their collective breath waiting for a last-minute sports reprieve. One source familiar with negotiations told this news organization it’s clear where things are headed.
“Dish and Sling has been wanting out of the Regional Sports Network business for some time,” the source said.
In fact, once NBC’s two Bay Area sports networks and one in Washington, D.C. are dropped next month, Dish and Sling will have severed ties with all of NBC’s regional sports networks.
For its part, NBC said in a statement that the carriage fees for Dish and Sling were in line with what other companies are paying for the rights to show teams such as the Giants, A’s, Warriors and Sharks.