| Bally Sports Midwest | |
| Type: | Regional sports network |
| Country: | United States |
| Network: | Bally Sports |
| Headquarters: | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Language: | English |
| Parent: | Sinclair Broadcast Group & Entertainment Studios Networks |
| Online Serv 1: | Bally Sports app |
| Online Chan 1: | (U.S. cable internet subscribers only; requires login from participating providers to stream content; some events may not be available due to league rights restrictions) |
| Online Serv 2: | DirecTV Stream |
| Online Chan 2: | Internet Protocol television |
| Online Serv 3: | FuboTV |
| Online Chan 3: | Internet Protocol television |
| Availability Note: | (some events may air on overflow feed Bally Sports Midwest Extra due to event conflicts) |
Bally Sports Midwest is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional event coverage of sports teams throughout the Midwestern United States, most prominently, professional sports teams based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bally Sports Midwest is available on cable providers throughout eastern and central Missouri, Western and Southern Illinois, Nebraska, and Iowa; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
The channel originally launched by TCI and Bill Daniels in November 1989 as Prime Sports Network Midwest (also referred to as Prime Sports Midwest), serving as an affiliate of the Prime Network. The network was originally based in Indianapolis and held rights to 25 home games of the Indiana Pacers.[1] Originally seen mainly within Indiana, the channel began expanding its cable provider coverage westward in 1994. Following Liberty Media's sale of the Prime Network to News Corporation, the channel became a member of the newly formed Fox Sports Net (then a joint venture between Liberty Media and News Corporation) and rebranded as Fox Sports Midwest (FSMW) on November 1, 1996.[2] [3] The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Midwest in 1999, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner; subsequently in 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Midwest, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand.
In the spring of 2006, Fox Sports Midwest obtained the exclusive regional cable television rights to broadcast NBA games involving the Indiana Pacers. This resulted in the channel creating a spin-off regional sports network channel, Fox Sports Indiana, for the primary purpose of airing games from the Pacers and the WNBA's Indiana Fever; Fox Sports Indiana launched on November 1, 2006, at the start of the team's regular season.
In the fall of 2007, Fox Sports Midwest signed an exclusive long-term agreement to broadcast games from the Kansas City Royals (this followed the team's decision to dissolve the Royals Sports Television Network, a regional television syndication service for the team's game broadcasts). On January 24, 2008, the network formally announced that it would spin-off its subfeed for the Kansas City market into a separate channel, Fox Sports Kansas City, to avoid scheduling conflicts with Fox Sports Midwest's St. Louis Cardinals game coverage.[4] The main St. Louis-based feed reverted to the Fox Sports Midwest moniker that same year.
On July 15, 2010, Fox Sports Midwest signed a new television contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, giving the channel exclusive regional broadcast rights to the team's games beginning with the 2011 season, ending the team's local broadcasts in the St. Louis market on NBC affiliate KSDK (channel 5).[5]
On July 30, 2015, Fox Sports Midwest and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a long-term television rights agreement. The new agreement began in 2018 and will run 15 seasons through the 2032 season.[6] The deal will guarantee the St. Louis Cardinals more than $1 billion, including a 30% equity stake in the network.[7]
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Midwest. However, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of ESPN. On May 3, 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (through their joint venture, Diamond Holdings) bought Fox Sports Networks from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion.[8] The deal closed on August 22, 2019.[9] On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operator Bally's Corporation to serve as a new naming rights partner for the FSN channels. Sinclair announced the new Bally Sports branding for the channels on January 27, 2021. On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the 2021 Major League Baseball season, Fox Sports Midwest was rebranded as Bally Sports Midwest, resulting in 18 other Regional Sports Networks renamed Bally Sports in their respective regions.[10]
On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.[11]
Bally Sports Midwest holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to Major League Baseball games from the St. Louis Cardinals and NHL games from the St. Louis Blues. As the St. Louis region is claimed by both the NBA's Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies, select games from Bally Sports Indiana and Bally Sports South are carried, either as repeats, on Bally Sports Midwest Plus, or on the main channel if a Blues or SLU game is not scheduled that night. The channel also broadcasts college athletics, including men's basketball games from the Missouri Valley Conference and St. Louis Billikens.
Bally Sports Midwest maintains a total of 6 feeds (not including 5 additional feeds for Bally Sports Indiana and Bally Sports Kansas City). In addition to Cardinals and Blues games which are available in all regions except Nebraska, select games produced by neighboring Bally Sports networks are also carried in some areas. The Kansas City Royals (produced by Bally Sports Kansas City) are offered in most regions outside of the Cardinals exclusive market area. Since the entire coverage area lacks an NBA team, games from two of the following teams are offered in each region: Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Oklahoma City Thunder.[12]
| Region served | MLB | NBA | NHL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Cardinals | Kansas City Royals (Bally Sports Kansas City) | Indiana Pacers (Bally Sports Indiana) | Memphis Grizzlies (Bally Sports South) | Minnesota Timberwolves (Bally Sports North) | Oklahoma City Thunder (Bally Sports Oklahoma) | St. Louis Blues | ||
| St. Louis | ||||||||
| Northeast Missouri | ||||||||
| Southeast Missouri | ||||||||
| Central/Downstate Illinois | ||||||||
| Southwest/Mid-Missouri | ||||||||
| Northern Iowa | ||||||||
| Southeastern Iowa | ||||||||
| East Central Iowa | ||||||||
| South Central Iowa | ||||||||
| Central Iowa | ||||||||
| Southwestern Iowa | ||||||||
| Nebraska | ||||||||
Until the creation of the SEC Network in 2014, Fox Sports Midwest also screened a substantial amount of Missouri Tigers programming, including select football games, basketball, and occasional Olympic sports telecasts. It aired weekly Mizzou magazine shows, as well as football and men's basketball coaches' shows. It also filled a similar role for the Nebraska Cornhuskers until they joined the Big Ten Conference (which too has its own TV channel) in 2012, and like for Mizzou it aired university-produced ancillary programming for the Huskers. Additionally, the network carried SIUE Cougars men’s basketball through the 2017-18 season, Kansas State Wildcats men’s and women’s basketball (simulcasted from sister network Fox Sports Kansas City) through the 2018-19 season, and a limited schedule of Creighton Bluejays men’s basketball games through the 2019-20 season. The Creighton games were aired through a sub-licensing deal with then-sister network Fox Sports 1 in which some games not of national interest are distributed to their regional sports network partners, CBS Sports Network and the ESPN family of networks as part of the "new" Big East's television contract. Syndicated coverage of football and men’s and women’s basketball from the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Conference USA, Pac-12, SEC, and WCC also aired on the network until all of those conferences ultimately discontinued their syndication packages to regional sports networks at various points throughout the past two decades.
Bally Sports Midwest Extra is an overflow feed of Bally Sports Midwest that was launched in October 2011 as Fox Sports Midwest Plus. Bally Sports Kansas City and Bally Sports Indiana also operate their own Bally Sports Extra overflow feeds to resolve scheduling conflicts with Bally Sports Midwest-televised events that are simulcast on the two channels.[13] [14]
See also: Major League Baseball blackout policy. The St. Louis Cardinals have one of the largest geographic territories for an MLB team, with includes all or part of 10 states and partially overlaps the territories of 9 other teams. As a result, Bally Sports Midwest provides Cardinals games to neighboring Bally Sports networks (in addition to Bally Sports Indiana and Kansas City) in areas where Bally Sports Midwest is not carried. Most games appear on Bally Sports South or Bally Sports Southeast in parts of western Kentucky, western Tennessee, and northern Mississippi, with the remaining games available on an alternate channel. In Arkansas and Oklahoma games are broadcast on Bally Sports Southwest Extra/Bally Sports Oklahoma Extra.[15]