Royals, Sporting KC games on FSKC dropped from Dish Network and Sling TV

Royals fans who have Dish Network or Sling TV got a rude surprise Friday when they found Fox Sports Kansas City was no longer available.

Fox Sports Kansas City, which also broadcasts Sporting KC games, is one of 21 regional networks clashing with Dish over carriage fees. Sling TV is a streaming service owned by Dish Network.

“The regional sports TV business model is broken,” Dish Network senior vice president of programming Andy LeCuyer said in a statement, per Deadline. “It relies on the majority of customers subsidizing the slim minority who actually watch these channels. RSNs should be like a ticket to the ballpark — fans who want to watch the game should be the ones who pay for it.”

In April, the Walt Disney Co., agreed to sell its regional sports networks (RSNs) to Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., Bloomberg reported, as a condition of Disney’s merger with Fox. The Sinclair sale hasn’t been finalized, so Disney still owns the RSNs, including Fox Sports Kansas City.

“The Fox RSNs offered to extend Dish and Sling under the current terms of our existing agreement, but Dish and Sling rejected our offer,” Fox Sports said in a said in a statement. “We know fans are looking forward to the broadcasts of their hometown teams during the stretch run of the baseball season, and we hope Dish and Sling act to return this programming to their customers.”

The Los Angeles Times reported Dish said “had offered a short-term extension with the hope of striking a long-term deal, but representatives of the sports networks wanted a nine-month extension to next spring, just before the start of Major League Baseball’s 2020 season — something Dish was unwilling to do. Sinclair is expected to take ownership of the channels later this year.”

Two years ago, FSKC and Spectrum clashed over fees and the network threatened to pull Royals games from the cable provider. However, fans never lost the chance to watch the Royals.

Dish and Sling subscribers aren’t as lucky. And it appears the impasse could last a while.

“We’re constantly negotiating with programmers to keep your cost low and provide you with the best value,” Sling said on its website. “Unfortunately, the owners of Fox Regional Sports Networks and YES Network has made the deliberate decision to block your access to their channels. They have made unreasonable demands, and we refuse to impose those demands on you, our customer.”

This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 3:47 PM.