Sinclair Buys the SportsNets

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We told you they were going to announce it yesterday and they did.

Disney and Sinclair have reached a deal for all 21 channels, with a price tag of just over $10 billion.

That figure is far cheaper than the $15 billion to $25 billion range most analysts had predicted Disney could get.

Yahoo writes that this deal, when official, will be the third sports TV move Sinclair has made in a short time.

In March, Sinclair joined Blackstone and Amazon in backing the New York Yankees’ $3 billion re-purchase of the 80% of YES Network the team had sold to Fox in 2014. YES Network was the 22nd channel in the former Fox portfolio, and was seen as the crown jewel.

And back in February, Sinclair partnered with the Chicago Cubs to create a new RSN in Chicago, to be called Marquee Sports Network, that will air all local Cubs games beginning in 2020.