Dish Network drops NBC Sports channels airing Kings, Warriors, Giants, A’s, Sharks games
Dish Network will no longer carry two regional sports networks that broadcast Kings games and hundreds of other professional sporting events in Northern California.
Dish Network removed NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California from its Dish TV and Sling TV platforms Thursday as part of a broader move impacting subscribers in 10 states and Washington, D.C. As a result, Dish and Sling will no longer carry NBC Sports California, which airs Kings, Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks and San Jose Earthquakes games, or NBC Sports Bay Area, which airs Golden State Warriors, San Francisco Giants and Earthquakes games.
Some Dish subscribers in Sacramento discovered the cancellations as the Kings (22-26) prepared to play the Los Angeles Lakers at (30-18) on Friday at Golden 1 Center.
“DISH Network has officially removed NBC Sports CA,” Amarpreet Chima wrote in a post on the Sacramento Kings Bench Mob Facebook page. “The app also doesn’t work for DISH subscribers.”
Dish president Brian Neylon said the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and NBC regional sports networks are demanding rates that would be passed on to nearly every customer. The satellite television provider said it has made a “consumer-friendly proposal” to MASN and NBC, but the networks have been unwilling to accept.
“The current RSN (regional sports network) model is fundamentally broken,” Neylon said in a news release. “This model requires nearly all customers to pay for RSNs when only a small percentage of customers actually watch them. As the cost of these channels continues to escalate, we no longer think it makes sense to include them in our TV lineup.”
In a statement provided to The Sacramento Bee, a spokesman for NBCUniversal said: “The NBC Regional Sports Networks offered to continue distribution on fair market terms. DISH and Sling declined those terms and have dropped the networks. The many other distributors that continue to carry the RSNs are listed on each RSN’s website.”
The NBC Sports Bay Area & California website features a list of providers that still carry the regional sports networks, including AT&T U-verse, Consolidated Communications, Direct TV, Xfinity, AT&T TV, Fubo TV, Hulu and YouTube TV.
Dish said it remains open to working with the regional sports networks to offer sports content in a way that offers “choice and value” to all customers.
“Our proposal to offer sports fans access to RSNs is simple, and provides choice and value to all of our customers,” Neylon said. “It would allow DISH TV and SLING TV customers to choose to subscribe to the RSN channels they want — such as the regional MASN and NBC sports networks — on an a la carte basis, similar to premium subscription channels. With this updated RSN model, no customer would be forced to pay for content they don’t watch, and the RSNs would determine the price customers would pay for their channels.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 12:07 PM.
