How To Watch Regional Sports Networks on Live TV Streaming Services

Are you considering cutting the cord from your cable company but are worried about access to your local sports team’s games?

Regional Sports Networks (often referred to as “RSNs”) own the in-market broadcasting rights to many professional baseball, basketball and hockey teams. And they’re becoming increasingly difficult to access via live TV streaming services in 2023.

For example, Atlanta Braves fans cannot find the telecast of games on Bally Sports South via YouTube TV, Sling TV or Hulu + Live TV. Those are three of the most popular services for streaming live TV!

As an avid sports fan myself, I feel your pain. I have tested out all of the live TV streaming options in search of the best solutions.

DIRECTV STREAM and Fubo are likely your best options in 2023, but they’re going to be expensive.

In this article, I’m going to help you understand why you aren’t seeing your favorite team on many of the popular streaming services and find a cost-effective solution for streaming them— without running back to the cable company.

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Table of Contents

• Why Are RSNs So Hard To Find on Live TV Streaming Services?
• Which RSN Do You Need for Your Favorite Team?
• Which Live TV Streaming Services Offer Your RSN?

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Why Are RSNs So Hard To Find on Live TV Streaming Services?

The short answer is: Cost.

The long answer is a little more complex.

The Regional Sports Network business model is built on exclusive broadcasting rights for games in local television markets.

Some teams, like the New York Yankees (YES Network) and Chicago Cubs (Marquee Sports Network), have decided to create their own television networks to broadcast their games. They sell their product directly to cable and streaming companies.

But most teams have instead chosen to sell those broadcasting rights to an external broadcasting company like Bally Sports.

These external companies pay millions in fees to own the exclusive broadcasting rights to games. They then make money by selling advertising on the platform and selling access to their channel to cable, satellite and streaming services.

The cable and satellite companies have traditionally charged a regional sports fee to all customers (whether they actually watch the RSNs or not) to cover the cost of acquiring the channel for their subscription package.

Streaming services have been less cooperative in that regard. YouTube TV, for example, decided that it was no longer worth paying Bally Sports for access to its channels because it did not want to pass that cost on to its customers.

Other streaming services, such as Fubo, have opted to offer RSNs by charging a mandatory regional sports fee on top of their advertised monthly subscription rate.

As consumers, this creates a no-win situation: Many streaming services we like don’t have the RSNs. And the streaming services that do have them are among the most expensive on the market.

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Which RSN Do You Need for Your Favorite Team?

If you are a fan of a Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA) or National Hockey League (NHL) team, your choices for watching the games will be determined by your location.

Before moving forward with making a subscription purchase, you must first determine if you are considered to be in the team’s local broadcast market or not based on your ZIP code. Most leagues have a tool for this, like MLB’s blackout restriction check.

Here’s the breakdown of options once you’ve made that determination:

If you live in what is deemed the team’s local TV market, you’ll have a few options. You’ll need live TV streaming, traditional cable or satellite to access the games via RSN. Some may have the option to use a standalone streaming subscription like Bally Sports+, but that is not available in all markets.

If you live outside the local market, you should be able to view the games via subscription to MLB.TV, NBA League Pass or ESPN+ (for NHL games).

For those in the local market, here are the RSNs that correspond with your favorite teams in each league:

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Which Live TV Streaming Services Offer Your RSN?

Now that you know which RSN broadcasts the in-market games for your favorite team, let’s take a look at the availability of these channels on live TV streaming services.

Let’s start with the places you won’t find them: Discount streaming bundles like Frndly TV and Philo are great for cheap live TV, but they don’t dabble in the live sports market. There are no RSNs available with their products.

Sling TV and VIDGO TV offer popular live sports channels like ESPN, FS1 and SEC Network, but they do not offer RSNs.

YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV do not have agreements with Bally Sports, which has the broadcasting rights for many teams. So while those two are among our top live TV streaming picks, they will leave many sports fans wanting more.

That leaves us with two major players in the live TV streaming RSN space: DIRECTV STREAM and Fubo.

DIRECTV STREAM has access to all of the RSNs, but you’re going to pay a premium for it. The cheapest channel package that includes RSNs is the Choice package, which costs $99.99 per month.

Fubo recently added Bally Sports RSNs to its menu, so many streamers may find them as a viable DIRECTV STREAM alternative. However, you will be need to pay $75 per month for its base subscription and will be subjected to a regional sports fee that pushes that monthly cost to $87.

Here’s a quick reference for which live TV streaming services offer your local RSN:

	DIRECTV STREAM	Fubo	Hulu + Live TV	YouTube TV
Altitude Sports Network	Yes	Yes	No	No
AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh	Yes	Yes	No	No
AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain	Yes	Yes	No	No
AT&T SportsNet Southwest	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Arizona	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Detroit	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Florida	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Great Lakes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Indiana	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Kansas City	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Midwest	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports New Orleans	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports North	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Ohio	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Oklahoma	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports San Diego	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports South	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Southeast	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Southwest	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Sun	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports West	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bally Sports Wisconsin	Yes	Yes	No	No
Marquee Sports Network	Yes	Yes	No	No
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN)	Yes	No	No	No
MSG	Yes	Yes	No	No
NBC Sports Bay Area	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NBC Sports Boston	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NBC Sports California	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NBC Sports Chicago	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NBC Sports Philadelphia	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
NBC Sports Washington	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
New England Sports Network (NESN)	Yes	Yes	No	No
Root Sports Northwest	Yes	Yes	No	No
Spectrum SportsNet LA	Yes	No	No	No
SportsNet NY	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
YES Network	Yes	No	No	No

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How are you watching your favorite sports teams? We’d love to hear your strategies in the Clark.com community.