Bally Sports+ is a streaming service that offers primarily in-market NBA, NHL, and MLB games for local fans. Here’s why you might want to think twice before signing up.
Table of Contents
In this Bally Sports+ review, I will offer the pros and cons of paying $20 per month just for access to your local Bally Sports RSN, but first some background.
Origin story
All of the 21 Bally Sports RSNs used to be owned by 21st Century Fox and branded as FOX Sports RSNs. To this day, fans who aren’t aware of the new branding search topics like “how can I watch FOX Sports Southeast?”
Unfortunately, the old FOX sports channels have been retired, although the programming is largely identical under the new branding.
When Disney acquired large chunks of 21st Century Fox in 2019, the Justice Department required the sale of the FOX Sports regional sports networks portfolio so as not to consolidate too much sports programming with one mega corporation (Disney owns ABC and ESPN). Disney sold the stations to Sinclair Broadcasting for 10.6 billion, who then promptly rebranded the stations to be named after the Bally casino chain.
Disney sold YES Network, the local TV home of the Yankees and Nets, to both Sinclair and Amazon in a separate 3.5 billion dollar deal, that set the table for the very unpopular Amazon Yankees broadcasts. You can’t watch the Yankees, or the YES Network, on Bally Sports Plus.
You can watch these teams on Bally Sports+
Here are some popular franchises you can watch on Bally Sports+ in-market:
Problems with Bally Sports+ as a standalone service
As a standalone option, Bally Sports+ won’t satisfy most sports fans.
Pros
Cons
- Limited to one channel
- No access to the biggest games
- No football and non-sports programming
- Lack of supported devices
You only get one channel
First, by signing up, you don’t get access to the entire Bally Sports RSN library, the broadcasts are still subject to regional restrictions, so the platform is a live streaming service that only offers one channel to in-market fans.
You miss most of the big games
Next, because Bally Sports+ only has rights to regular season and a handful of early playoff games, subscribing is like watching an entire series without access to the final episodes.
If your team makes a playoff run, you can’t watch the games. Similarly, when your team appears in a nationally televised game, like Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, or the NBA on TNT, you can’t watch the games on the app.
No football and non-sports programming
Last, you can’t watch NFL, college football, or any non-sports related programming on Bally Sports+.
Households who want to live stream college football and NFL games are out of luck, and members of your family who don’t watch sports won’t have any options.
Stream quality issues and lack of supported devices
Bally Sports Plus users have reported issues with the picture quality on Reddit. Consider this comment from a user in Detroit, one of the markets where the app first rolled out.
For anyone considering this, it’s worth knowing that the video streaming quality through the Bally Sports app is noticeably worse than Apple TV, MLB TV, ESPN+ streams etc. It’s not even HD quality. I’d also recommend seeing if your streaming devices are supported.
presciptionwater on reddit
The supported device issue is also a major problem. It really looks like the app has been created with a mobile first approach which will frustrate cord cutters who want to stream local teams in their living rooms. For example, it appears Roku and Samsung devices are not yet supported. According to the Bally Sports Plus FAQ page, these devices are supported:
BallySports.com, mobile and tablet (iOS, Android), tvOS, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV. Bally Sports+ will be coming soon to additional platforms.
Bally Sports Plus FAQ page
The app makes sense as an add-on
If you’re deciding on a Bally Sports+ subscription, what it really comes down to are 4 questions:
- Do you want to watch NFL or college football?
- Is watching your team’s big games, including the playoffs, important to you?
- Do members of your household want to watch non-sports programming?
- Is the $20 per month worth adding on to a platform that doesn’t carry Bally Sports RSNs, like fuboTV or YouTube TV?
For most fans, the platform won’t offer enough as a standalone service, however, when you factor in the cost of DIRECTV STREAM “Choice” versus the cost of competing live TV streaming services, Bally Sports+ makes a lot of sense. Rather than selling access to RSNs to live TV streaming services who don’t want to pay Sinclair’s carriage fees, Bally Sports went direct to consumer with an offering that approximates on cost what it seems DTV needs to charge its subscribers to profitably carry Bally Sports RSNs.
After all, if cord cutters are willing to pay $20 per month for the YouTube TV 4K add-on, maybe they are willing to add-on a Bally Sports RSN in order to have a better range of streaming choices in their local market.
Where to wath Bally Sports RSNs – alternative options
| DIRECTV STREAM – Choice | ESPN Plus | Fubo | Hulu + Live TV | Paramount+ | Sling Orange & Blue | YouTube TV | |
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| $99.99 / month | $9.99 / month | $74.99 / month | $69.99 / month | $5.99 / month | $50 / month | $72.99 / month |