FanDuel Sports Networks may find themselves a home on ESPN’s future streaming platform.
According to a report by Jared Diamond and Isabella Simonetti in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday night, Main Street Sports Group (née Diamond Sports), the owner and operator of the FanDuel Sports Network regional channels, “has discussed potentially bundling its streaming offering with ESPN’s flagship direct-to-consumer service,” when it launches later this year.
The partnership would be a way for ESPN to stay involved with Major League Baseball after having opted out of its contract with the league last month.
Analysts have expressed concern that ESPN’s lack of baseball programming would prove problematic in terms of reducing churn for its streaming service during the summer months. A partnership with FanDuel Sports Networks would help solve that problem without having to pay its current $550 million rights fee to the league.
Similarly, an ESPN partnership would prove a boon to FanDuel Sports Networks, which would have another means of distribution to fans. Many MLB clubs are on short-term deals with FanDuel Sports Networks as a result of renegotiations following Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy proceedings last year. Attaching itself to ESPN could provide some level of stability, and perhaps the capital necessary to compete with MLB itself, whose desire to gobble up local rights to sell as a national package has been made clear.
FanDuel Sports Networks are currently available as an add-on to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service for $19.99 per month. It’s unclear if the nature of a potential bundling effort with ESPN would look similar, or be included in the network’s overall streaming offering.
