In recent months and years, one of the biggest business stories in sports has been the state of regional sports networks. Many of the RSNs have changed hands from Fox Sports Net to the Bally Sports Network and now as FanDuel Sports Network.
In addition to the regional sports networks, there is also a FanDuel TV that primarily is a horse racing channel that used to operate under the name TVG. It has since added more traditional sports programming that includes shows hosted by personalities Kay Adams and Michelle Beadle.
A recent report out of Sports Business Journal insists that the FanDuel regional sports channels are at risk of shutting down unless a sale with DAZN is cleared. DAZN is primarily known for its boxing and soccer coverage.
Main Street Sports which owns the FanDuel Sports channels, recently offered deals to nine Major League Baseball teams that canceled their arrangements with the RSNs. Even if the baseball teams agree to the new pact with Main Street Sports, it still has to find a buyer. If there is a buyer of the channels, it will likely be DAZN.
The saga of the regional sports channels used to be a bigger story within WNBA circles than it currently is now. As of 2026, only one team still has its games primarily carried on one of the FanDuel Sports channels – the Minnesota Lynx on FanDuel Sports North. Throughout the 2025 season, FanDuel Sports Indiana also carried a few Indiana Fever matchups.
The Dallas Wings, Phoenix Mercury and Atlanta Dream also previously had their games carried on one of the RSNs as recently as when they operated under the Bally Sports banner. All three teams moved to have their games carried by local broadcasters – as well as on WNBA League Pass.
There are also teams that still have games carried by a regional sports network not under the FanDuel Sports banner. Those include the Connecticut Sun on NBC Sports Boston and the Los Angeles Sparks on Spectrum SportsNet.
Two teams whose matchups were previously on non-FanDuel regional sports channels and have since moved to the combination of local broadcasters and WNBA League Pass are the New York Liberty and Chicago Sky. For much of the Liberty’s history, its games were aired in MSG Network when New York was under the MSG umbrella and called Madison Square Garden its home (and those forgetful years in Westchester).
When the Liberty were bought out by Joe and Clara Wu Tsai and brought under the Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment umbrella, games were fittingly moved to the YES Network since it already had a pact with the Brooklyn Nets. Games featuring the seafoam, copper and black are now aired on WWOR-TV My9 and WNYW-TV Fox 5.
The Sky have been synonymous with WCIU-TV Channel 26, “The U.” It was a previously independent station before it became Chicago’s affiliate for The CW. The Sky had a brief cup of coffee with the Marquee Sports Network – whose bread and butter is Chicago Cubs programming. Chicago’s WNBA team has since moved back to CW 26.
When the Golden State Valkyries debuted last season, it tapped local owned and operated CBS affiliate KPIX-TV Channel 5 to air its games instead of NBC Sports Bay Area & California.
In many ways, the WNBA and its teams deserve praise for being proactive on the regional sports network saga. Many teams – especially in markets with a FanDuel regional sports channel – decided not to ink new arrangements with said channels and decided to have its games carried by local broadcasters.
With Major League Baseball, it has now taken on the task of producing television broadcasts for many teams using a direct-to-consumer model. In the WNBA, it already had the direct-to-consumer model down pat with League Pass – and, before that, WNBA Season Pass. Many WNBA games are also produced in-house for television and streaming.
One thing that WNBA teams understood arguably better than its peer men’s leagues is how real cord-cutting is and how much of the television-viewing populace has migrated over to streaming. There is a reason as to why two of the W’s upcoming media partners are streamers – Peacock and Amazon Prime.
There are many reasons to dunk on the WNBA nowadays – the letters C, B and A come to mind. But the W deserves plenty of credit for its foresight in seeing that RSNs have been lately catching many an L.
