FanDuel Sports Network Sun is an American

regional sports network A regional sports network (RSN) in the United States and Canada is a television channel that presents sports programming to a local media market or geographical region. Such channels often focus on one or a few teams who currently play in Major L ...

owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate of

FanDuel Sports Network FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports) is a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group). The networks carry regional broadcasts of sporting events from various ...

. The channel broadcasts local coverage of professional, collegiate and sporting events in the state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, with a focus on professional sports teams based in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

and

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

. FanDuel Sports Network Sun and sister regional sports network FanDuel Sports Network Florida are headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with studios located in

. FanDuel Sports Network is available on

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

providers throughout Florida; it is also available nationwide on

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

via

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

History

The channel launched on March 4, 1988, as Sunshine Network, originally serving as an affiliate of Prime Network. The network was formed as a joint-venture of 11 cable companies and Home Sports Entertainment. Later that year, Sunshine would obtain rights to broadcast the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NB ...

in their inaugural

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. In 1992, the network would also secure rights to another new team, the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. The Lightning compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the ...

. In its early years, the network also aired some public affairs programming in addition to sports. Because Florida did not have a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

team at the time, the network featured games from multiple teams including

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is tradition ...

, Orioles, and

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

, along with college sports from UCF,

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

Stetson Stetson is an American brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company. "Stetson" is also used as a generic trademark to refer to any campaign hat, particularly in Scouting. John B. Stetson gained inspiration for his most famous ...

and

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

Universities. In 1993, Sunshine gained rights to the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. The team plays its home games at LoanDepot Park. The ...

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

. In 1997, half of the 70 game schedule was moved to rival SportsChannel Florida (which at the time was owned by Marlins' owner

Wayne Huizenga Harry Wayne Huizenga Sr. (; December 29, 1937 – March 22, 2018) was an American businessman. He founded AutoNation and Waste Management Inc., and was the owner or co-owner of Blockbuster Video, the Miami Dolphins of the National Football ...

). The following season, the entire schedule was moved to SportsChannel. In 1996,

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

, which formed a sports division for the

Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...

in 1994 with the acquisition of the television rights to the

National Football Conference The National Football Conference (NFC) is a conference of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference (AFC), each h ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

, entered into a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with TCI spinoff

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in the Formula One Group, S ...

and rebranded that company's Prime Network affiliates under the "Fox Sports Net" banner. Sunshine Network was the only

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

owned-and-operated charter outlet that did not rebrand under that name when it and the other Prime outlets relaunched as Fox Sports Net on November 1, 1996. Liberty Media (which at this point owned 49% of the network) proposed Fox Sports Sunshine as a new name for the network, but ultimately the rest of the owners did not approve it. In early 2000, Fox Sports Net programming moved from Sunshine to the newly rebranded Fox Sports Net Florida. Sunshine Network changed its name to Sun Sports on January 18, 2005, in order to reflect its sports-focused programming. Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida were spun off with the rest of the Fox Sports Networks and most of News Corporation's other U.S. entertainment properties into

21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was formed on June 28, 2013, as the legal successor ...

in July 2013. On October 4, 2015, Sun Sports changed its name to Fox Sports Sun (FSSUN). Bally_Sports_Sun

On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies,

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports Networks from

, including Fox Sports Sun and sister network Fox Sports Florida. However, on June 27, 2018, the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. On May 3, 2019,

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

and

Entertainment Studios Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...

(through their joint venture, Diamond Holdings) bought

Fox Sports Networks Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on M ...

from

for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019. On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operator

Bally's Corporation Bally's Corporation is an American gambling, betting, and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. In the US it operates 19 casinos across 11 states, a horse track in Colorado, a golf course in New York, and ...

to serve as a new

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

partner for the FSN channels. Sinclair announced the new Bally Sports branding for the channels on January 27, 2021. On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the

2021 Major League Baseball season The 2021 Major League Baseball season began on April 1, while the regular season ended on October 3. The postseason began on October 5. The World Series then began on October 26 and ended on November 2 with the Atlanta Braves defeating the Houst ...

, Fox Sports Sun and sister network Fox Sports Florida were rebranded as Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida, resulting in 18 other Regional Sports Networks renamed Bally Sports in their respective regions. The first live sports event on Bally Sports Sun was at 7 PM featuring the Miami Heat at the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

. The game was preceded with the "Heat Live" pregame show. On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports filed for

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

.] On May 1st, 2024, Comcast halted Bally Sports Sun programming. On October 16, 2024, it was revealed in a court filing that Diamond had reached a new sponsorship agreement with FanDuel, FanDuel Group, under which it intends to rebrand Bally Sports as the FanDuel Sports Network; on October 18, 2024, Diamond officially announced the rebranding, which will take effect October 21. Under the agreement, FanDuel will have the option to take a minority equity stake of up to 5% once Diamond Sports exits bankruptcy. The branding will be downplayed within programming related to high school sports. On May 14, 2025, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that they would leave FanDuel Sports Network Sun, with the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...

-owned WXPX-TV taking over local broadcasts through Scripps Sports.

Programming

FanDuel Sports Network Sun holds the regional cable television rights to the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern C ...

and the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. They are one of two major ...

. In addition, FanDuel Sports Network Sun offers insider programming for the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

and

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

. FanDuel Sports Network Sun maintains separate feeds for individual regions of the state, with feeds for Miami (covering

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

), Tampa (covering western Florida) and Orlando (covering northern and

central Florida Central Florida is a Regions of the United States#Florida, region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, in ...

). The separation of broadcast zones for the channel is mostly due to the defined broadcast territories set by the National Basketball Association for the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. Programming seen in each broadcasting zone is common in most areas, and includes a mix of programs supplied by Bally Sports and some original programming exclusive to FanDuel Sports Network Sun and FanDuel Sports Network Florida. Due to the naming rights deal with FanDuel, select programming from FanDuel TV is included in the schedule. FanDuel Sports Network Sun is also home to outdoor programming, highlighted by extensive salt and fresh water fishing programs such as the Chevy Florida Insider Fishing Report and Sportsman's Adventures.

Former programming

From 2003 to 2004, the network aired

Major League Wrestling Major League Wrestling (MLW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in New Rochelle, New York. The promotion was founded in 2002 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by former WWE writer Court Bauer. The promotion markets its product as ...

's (MLW) taped weekly

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

show MLW Underground TV which featured taped matches from MLW's past events. On May 14, 2025, it was reported that Main Street Sports Group had opted out of its contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team then signed with Scripps Sports and WXPX.

Programming rights with FanDuel Sports Network Florida

FanDuel Sports Network Sun shares the broadcast rights to the aforementioned professional sports teams with FanDuel Sports Network Florida. As the two regional networks are commonly owned, events from any team/conference in which FDSN Sun and FDSN Florida broadcasts are able to air on either channel depending on the start time of each team's respective games (particularly with the Marlins and Rays, since both teams routinely play at concurring start times). The two channels do not focus on one region of Florida (although it was long rumored since the two came under common ownership that FDSN Sun would carry only teams from the Orlando and

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater i ...

areas, while FDSN Florida would carry Miami-area teams), but simply distribute games in accordance with each team's territorial rights, with both cable channels maintaining joint exclusivity over regional broadcasts of Heat, Marlins, Rays and the Magic. In 2010, the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...

moved all of their Major League Baseball games to then Fox Sports Florida, while the Tampa Bay Rays began carrying all their games on then Sun Sports. Prior to 2009, some Rays games were available on

broadcast television Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. Analog television systems were standardized ...

stations in the state via a network made up of the state's

Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...

stations.

Current personalities

Tampa Bay Rays

* Dewayne Staats – play-by-play announcer * Brian Anderson –

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

* Matt Joyce – pre-game and post-game

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

Denard Span Keiunta Denard Span (born February 27, 1984) is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mar ...

– pre-game and post-game

* Doug Waechter – pre-game and post-game

* Rich Hollenberg - Pre and Post game host and fill-in play-by-play announcer * Ryan Bass - field reporter

Miami Marlins

* Paul Severino – play-by-play announcer * Tommy Hutton - analyst * Jeff Nelson – analyst (select games) * Gaby Sánchez – analyst (select games) * Rod Allen – analyst (select games) *

Craig Minervini Craig Minervini is an American sports broadcaster who is the studio host for Bally Sports Florida's Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers broadcasts. Early life Minervini grew up on Long Island. He attended Commack High School South and co-starred ...

– pre-game host and in-game reporter and Fill-in play-by-play announcer * Kelly Saco – pre-game host and Fill-in in-game reporter

Miami Heat

Eric Reid Eric Todd Reid Jr. (born December 10, 1991) is an American former professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for LSU Tigers, receiving consensus All-American recognition. He ...

– play-by-play announcer * John Crotty – analyst * Jason Jackson – post-game host and in-game reporter * Ron Rothstein – half-time and post-game analyst

Orlando Magic

* David Steele – play-by-play announcer * Jeff Turner – analyst * Paul Kennedy – host and in-game reporter * Dante Marchitelli – fill in in-game reporter

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1= {{Miami Heat {{Miami Marlins {{Orlando Magic {{Tampa Bay Lightning {{Tampa Bay Rays {{SBGI {{U.S. regional sports networks {{Tampa Bay TV {{Miami TV {{WPB TV {{Jacksonville TV {{Ft. Myers TV {{Tallahassee TV {{Orlando TV {{Panama City TV {{Gainesville TV {{PensacolaMobileTV {{Fox Sports Networks {{Prime Network 1988 establishments in Florida Prime Sports Fox Sports Networks Bally Sports FanDuel Sports Network Sports television networks in the United States Sports in Florida Television channels and stations established in 1988 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023