Comcast dropping Bally Sports Florida and Sun, for now. What it means for sports fans

Comcast, the dominant cable provider in South Florida, indicated it will yank Bally Sports networks nationally from the homes of all of its subscribers at midnight Tuesday night after months of negotiations between Comcast and Diamond Sports Group (which owns the Bally sports regionals) failed to produce a new carriage agreement.

In Florida, that means Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida are going dark for all Comcast homes.

Here’s how it will impact viewing of the Heat, Panthers and Marlins:

▪ Heat: Under terms of the NBA’s national TV contracts, Bally Sports Sun is carrying Game 5 of the Heat-Celtics playoff series at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday but would be permitted to televise just one more Heat game this postseason: Game 6 on Friday night, if the Heat prolongs the series by upsetting the Celtics in Game 5.

Those Bally cablecasts of the Heat, with announcers Eric Reid and John Crotty, will be unavailable in Comcast homes, barring an unexpected agreement between Diamond and Comcast.

TNT will carry Game 5 on Wednesday, with Brian Anderson and Stan Van Gundy announcing. That telecast will be available in every U.S. home that has access to TNT.

ESPN would carry a Game 6 on Friday if the Heat wins on Wednesday. And if the Heat can somehow force a Game 7, that would be at 1 p.m. Sunday on ABC.

▪ Panthers: Bally Sports Florida is not permitted to televise any more playoff games because of the NHL’s national TV deals that give ESPN and TNT exclusivity after the first round.

So Comcast subscribers won’t be missing Bally’s coverage of the Panthers’ second round playoff games, because Steve Goldstein and Randy Moller won’t be announcing any more games during the postseason.

Bally Sports Florida is not planning to do Panthers postgame shows in the second round of the playoffs.

The NHL has not announced when the Panthers’ next game will be.

▪ Marlins: Comcast subscribers won’t be able to watch Marlins games on Bally Sports Florida -- or Tampa Bay Rays games on Bally Sports Sun -- until an agreement between Comcast and Diamond is reached.

Bally makes Marlins games and all of its other programming available on its app. See https://www.ballysports.com/packages for details.

In March, Bally launched Season Pass as a streaming service on its app. It costs $105.99 for all Bally Sports Florida programming through Sept. 29 or $29.99 a month for all Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida programming.

At some point in the future (likely in 2025), Amazon Prime is expected to begin streaming games of the Marlins and four other MLB teams in their broadcast territories. That will supplement Bally Sports Florida’s television coverage of the Marlins, which is expected to continue.

At the root of the disagreement between Comcast and Diamond is Comcast’s desire to place Bally sports networks on a tier. Comcast purports to have research indicating that 70 percent of its consumers don’t want the Bally sports networks.

Comcast prefers that those who would like to get the channels pay for them on a tier – an idea that Diamond opposes.

Both sides released statements, as is commonplace during carriage disagreements.

Comcast said: “We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they work through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the term for another year, which they opted to not exercise.

“We’d like to continue carrying their networks, but they have declined multiple offers and now we no longer have the rights to this programming. We will proactively credit our customers for the costs associated with them – most will automatically receive $8 to 10 per month in credits.”

A Diamond Sports Group spokesperson said:

“It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast indicated that it intends to pull the signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams. Comcast has refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours.

“We are a fans-first company and will continue to seek an agreement with Comcast to restore broadcasts, and at this critical juncture for Diamond, we hope that Comcast will recognize the important and mutually beneficial role Diamond and RSNs play in the media ecosystem. In the meantime, fans in Comcast regions can access our networks through subscriptions to Fubo, DirecTV or DirecTV STREAM or through our direct-to-consumer offering, Bally Sports+ for the teams for which Diamond retains DTC rights.”