The regional sports networks that televise Braves, Hawks, Atlanta United and Dream games will have new names and a new look starting Wednesday, the day before the Braves’ season opener.
Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast will become Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast, respectively, as part of a naming-rights deal between the networks’ owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and casinos operator Bally’s Corporation.
“It’s going to be a completely new look,” Jeff Genthner, the networks’ general manager, said of the rebranding. “It is not going to feel like the cousin of Fox Sports South.”
The logo will be different, the red of Bally Sports replacing the blue of Fox Sports. The studio in Midtown Atlanta’s Colony Square for pregame and postgame shows has been renovated and rebranded, as have the networks’ sets outside Truist Park and inside State Farm Arena. The pre-recorded promotional sounds and music will be different. A new app will be launched, the Bally Sports app succeeding the Fox Sports Go app.
Even bigger and more substantive changes are on the drawing board for the months or year ahead as Sinclair envisions making the Bally Sports broadcasts more interactive, including the addition of “gamification” and/or sports betting elements for viewers so inclined.
“The rebrand to Bally Sports is just the first step,” Genthner said in an interview with the AJC this week. “The new brand is the beginning of a longer vision for greater content that will lead to greater fan engagement … as we continue to roll out new elements. I think that is going to happen throughout the remainder of 2021 and well into 2022.”
Chris Ripley, the CEO of Sinclair, put it this way on a conference call: “Sports betting is just one component of our gamification efforts. We are in the process of developing a new app, which will encourage viewers to actively participate in the sports viewing experience by offering interactive elements such as free-to-play contests, rewards and the ability to engage and interact with other fans. The idea is to make watching sports similar to playing a video game.”
Credit: Jessica Cox, Bally Sports
Credit: Jessica Cox, Bally Sports
The goal is to build audience and engagement by appealing to a younger generation of fans, particularly 18-to-34-year-olds.
“One of the problems that many sports see is that as older traditional fans move through the age cycle … younger fans do not consume sports the same way,” Genthner said. “It’s the video-game generation, and that is meant to say a higher level of engagement, rather than a passive level of just taking what is presented on television. It’s a much more interactive experience, so by putting gamification on a second screen or within a telecast, it appeals to the younger generation’s lifestyle.”
While specific ideas and the timeline for implementing them are still being developed, the networks’ owner is committed to a new path. (Sinclair owns 21 regional sports networks around the country.) Interactive elements could be introduced on the Bally Sports app or the telecasts “pretty quickly,” but not immediately, Genthner said.
“The vision is very different and very distinct,” he said. “... A lot of the strategy is not specifically around sports betting. I won’t deny that is certainly part of the end game, but gamification doesn’t require legalized sports betting. Gamification can be daily fantasy sports. It can be free-to-play games (such as competing against other viewers for points or rewards or just ego).
“However, I think it’s also fair to say that if and when sports betting is legalized in specific states – and I know it’s working its way through the Georgia Legislature – we’ll be well-positioned to offer a sports betting product at that time (because of the partnership between Sinclair and Bally’s).”
However that evolves, it will be separate from the announcers calling the games, Genthner said. “You’re not going to hear our announcers talk about the betting line and that type of thing,” he said. “Down the road, if and when it becomes legal, that’ll be on a whole separate platform.”
For all of the branding changes that will be evident when the networks begin using their new names Wednesday, and for all of the longer-term ideas on the drawing board, much will be familiar when Braves and Hawks games air Thursday on the renamed networks.
The networks will remain “on the exact same channel numbers on the exact same distributors,” Genthner said. “No one will have to search.” (The networks still won’t be available on some platforms, including streaming services YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, unless six-month-long contract disputes are resolved.)
The announcers calling the games will remain the same – play-by-play voice Chip Caray and analysts Jeff Francoeur and Tom Glavine on the Braves; play-by-play voice Bob Rathbun and analysts Dominique Wilkins and (occasionally) Vince Carter on the Hawks.
Caray and Francoeur said they haven’t been told to make any changes in their approach to broadcasting Braves games.
“It’ll be the same mission that it has been, whether it was Fox or TBS or any of the other entities that have had the broadcasts,” Caray said. “That (mission) is: great coverage. It’s just got a new wrapper, and we’re excited about that – new look, new graphics, all of that. And obviously the hope is, down the road, more fan interaction than we’ve ever had before.”
Credit: Jessica Cox, Bally Sports
Credit: Jessica Cox, Bally Sports
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