After much anticipation, Sinclair Broadcast Group has officially announced its plans to soft-launch its own direct-to-consumer streaming service called “Bally Sports+” by the start of the third quarter of 2022, priced at $19.99 monthly or $189.99 annually.
Earlier this week, Dan Barreiro reacted to the news that Bally Sports would be available to stream outside of the DirecTV Stream package after the regional sports networks had been previously dropped by other streaming services. During his show on KFAN in Minneapolis, he wondered if consumers would see the price as fair.
“They don’t view it the same way psychologically because it’s one of many channels they get for an overall price they are comfortable with,” Barreiro said, referring to Bally Sports’ presence within a larger subscription. “When it’s isolated like that, [consumers think], ‘$20 for Bally Sports? Are you kidding me!? You’re out of your mind.”
The show’s producer Justin Gaard believes the new service could serve as a gauge by which to measure overall interest in streaming sports. He is curious to see what happens if subscription prices rise, akin to Netflix raising its standard subscription price nearly 20% over the last calendar year.
“What’s the cost? What’s the limit?,” asked Gaard. “Am I willing to pay $20 or in three years when they go, ‘You know what? It’s $29.99 now.’ Or, ‘It’s $39.99.’ You know it’s going to go up at some point.”
There exists an overall feeling of disappointment towards sports teams in the Twin Cities, creating a feeling of disdain among sports fans. “I don’t want to be paying an additional $19.99 a month to watch teams get bounced in the first round of the playoffs,” commented a KFAN listener. While the NHL’s Minnesota Wild are currently competing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves were recently eliminated in the first round – creating a dilemma Sinclair and other services like it will need to figure out.
Not all sports fans within the Twin Cities closely follow every team, meaning that they may wish to subscribe to Sinclair’s streaming service for part of the year. Barreiro wondered if that is going to be possible.
“There are some people that say, ‘Well, there are some sports I’m going to be interested in, so I’m going to go in and out of it,’” expressed Barreiro. “Will you have that opportunity, or will the Sinclair people say, ‘Not so fast, my friend. You’ve got a minimum commitment of a year.’ Otherwise, it’s going to be too easy for people to take advantage of the system.”
