Both Mavericks and Stars fans "expressed concerns" this week over Bally Sports Southwest outages during gamesGetty Images
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that the team “will consider other options once its contract to air games on the Bally Sports Southwest network ends,” according to Alexandra Skores of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. But the uncertainty surrounding the bankruptcy of Bally Sports’ operator, Diamond Sports Group, could “force the issue sooner.” Cuban: “Once the contract’s up, we’ll look at all of our options.” Both Mavericks and Stars fans “expressed concerns” this week over Bally Sports Southwest outages during games. On Wednesday, Bally Sports’ Twitter reported more outages during the Mavericks’ game against the Bulls and the Stars’ game against the Flames, "just two nights after" outages during their games against the Grizzlies and Blue Jackets respectively. The company “apologized for the error,” which took “over an hour to fix” (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/2).
WHAT NOW? In Indianapolis, Gregg Doyel noted that before the 2022-23 season, the Pacers were “free agents on the local TV front.” The Pacers were “free to make a deal with another network, or to form its own network for the sole purpose of airing Pacers games.” Doyel: “The franchise looked and looked and decided the best thing was to make a deal with … Sinclair aka Diamond aka Bally Sports.” Doyel wrote the deal with Bally and its app is “blooper reel Pacers fans are living, because everything that could go wrong is going wrong.” Bally “couldn’t negotiate with streaming services, then couldn’t form an app that was worth a darn.” Doyle wrote, by “taking the money of Sinclair” the Pacers were “hoping an outfit that obviously doesn’t value its RSN’s could manage a competent sports app.” He added the Pacers “don’t know why the Bally app isn’t working today or if it will work tomorrow,” and they have “zero idea what will happen to streaming Pacers games once Bally does us all a favor and goes under for good” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 11/2).
TROUBLE WITH THE STREAM: In Minneapolis, Michael Rand wrote fans nationwide “already had a hate-hate relationship with Bally Sports before this week,” but issues with the Bally Sports Plus app Wednesday, which kept users from “being able to watch various other games, only exacerbated the problem.” Rand wrote “frustrated fans can be forgiven” if they are “somewhere between skeptical and mad, particularly those paying $20 a month as app subscribers.” The recent outages “perhaps underscore larger issues with streaming sports,” that “problems that can arise from streaming with buffering, third-party vendors and other factors, can make apps less reliable” (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 11/2).
