• by Wayne Friedman , December 21, 2022

Diamond Sports Group has inked a much needed distribution deal with virtual pay TV provider FuboTV, a sports-centric service -- gaining carriage for its 19 regional sports networks.

Financial terms were not disclosed. FuboTV now has 35 regional sports channels in total.

Earlier this year, Diamond Sports struck a renewal deal with cable TV networks operator Charter Communications to keep the RSNs on its Spectrum cable TV service.

Diamond Sports’ Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks continue to be plagued with financial problems, including $8 billion in overall debt with traditional and new virtual pay TV providers declining to make deals due to thinning profit margins for carrying the high-priced networks.

For example, major virtual pay TV services including YouTube TV, Hulu+Live TV, and Sling TV are not partners with Diamond Sports.

In November, FuboTV said its paid subscribers grew 31% versus the year before, to 1.23 million.

Diamond Sports Group is a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

FuboTV already has a carriage agreement with Sinclair for its over the air TV stations, as well as the Tennis Channel and the Marquee Sports Network, home to the Chicago Cubs local TV broadcasts.

Sinclair bought 21 RSNs in 2019 for $10.6 billion from Walt Disney.

Disney acquired the sports cable networks after its massive $71.2 billion acquisition of half of the 20th Century Fox media business in March 2019.