The growth of low-cost subscription streaming services such as YouTube TV and DirecTV Now, signing up people who don’t want to pay for cable, is giving a new burst of life to many cable channels getting carried on the services. But there’s one group of channels that aren’t so lucky—and that’s those local sports networks that aren’t included on the so-called “skinny bundle” streaming services.
Nearly half of the “regional sports networks,” as these channels are known, are being left off the new streaming services. Those left out in the cold include networks like Denver’s Altitude Sports and Baltimore’s MASN, which are missing out because—like other sports networks—they’re expensive to carry. And their owners haven’t managed to negotiate for the channels to be added to the new services.
