Amazon reportedly bids on Fox regional sports networks
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Michelle Clancy
| 21 November 2018

Amazon has emerged as a bidder for the 22 Fox regional sports networks (RSNs) that Disney must divest as a condition of its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s media assets.

According to a report by CNBC,by CNBC, Amazon's bid includes the New York-based YES Network. The YES Network, home of the New York Yankees, is considered to be worth more than $4 billion (the other RSNs are valued by Guggenheim at an average of $860 million each). The Yankees are reportedly bidding on the network themselves to gain a controlling interest back.

Amazon is not a stranger to sports: It has been the streaming home of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football since 2017 and recently won a digital rights package to show Premier League football in the UK.

So far, the only publicly known outcome of that bidding process, which closed earlier in November, is that Comcast decided not to participate. However, Apollo Global Management, KKR, Blackstone, Sinclair Broadcast and Tegna are also making first-round bids for the regional networks, sources told CNBC.

The new Fox also reportedly did not biddid not bid, even though market watchers has expected it to try to recapture the nets at a discount. The RSNs have always been profitable for the company, and it remains to be seen if they did indeed stay on the bench this time.

Meanwhile, Liberty Media, which owns baseball's Atlanta Braves, is rumoured to be a player for Fox Sports South, which broadcasts Braves games along with the Atlanta Falcons, Hawks, Dream and soccer team Atlanta United.

The second round of bids is expected before year-end and due diligence on the bids begins next week. A deal could close as early as the first quarter of next year.