Dallas Teams Ditch RSNs for New Models. Will Others Follow?

It’s no secret that all sports media is radically changing and at an accelerating rate. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

The Metroplex in Texas has seen every major local pro team dramatically shift its regional broadcasting model with the exception of the Cowboys—which like every other NFL team have their media rights controlled at the league level.

The WNBA’s Wings are the latest in the growing trend of pursuing alternate broadcast models, striking a deal with KFAA-TV, a local Tegna-owned television station, to show over the air every game not designated for national broadcast. The agreement joins a series of others in Dallas in the last seven months, including:

• Rangers: The MLB team parted ways with regional sports network operator Main Street Sports, formerly Diamond Sports Group, and instead formed its own local media venture, Rangers Sports Network. The effort will distribute games through a series of cable and over-the-air deals, as well as through the upstart streaming platform Victory+.
• Stars: The NHL team was the first locally to break away from the traditional RSN model, splitting from DSG and aligning last summer with Victory+.
• Mavericks: The NBA team is currently dealing with the fallout of its highly unpopular trade of Luka Dončić to the Lakers. Its games, however, are also shown locally on KFAA, as well as streamed on MavsTV, after a similar departure from DSG.

Each of the efforts serves as a key example of a fast-growing industry and consumer embrace of streaming, despite massive amounts of market fragmentation, as well as over-the-air television for sports broadcasting. 

Underlying Strategy

In many ways, the Dallas area is a perfect test market to see how a nontraditional effort in local sports media performs. In the latest U.S. media-market rankings from Nielsen, Dallas–Fort Worth elevated to fourth, rising from a prior No. 5 slot and now trailing only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. 

The Texas locale, as a result, has overtaken Philadelphia as the largest U.S. market with only one local team in each of the major men’s pro sports leagues. That situation allows for simpler evaluation and monetization of each team’s affinity and viewership without the neighboring presence of a competing franchise. 

Each of the men’s teams, except the Cowboys, also has a track record of recent competitive success with the Rangers winning the 2023 World Series, the Mavericks advancing to the 2024 NBA Finals, and the Stars reaching the Western Conference finals each of the last two seasons. 

The Wings, meanwhile, were the WNBA’s second-worst team last year but reached the playoffs each of the prior three seasons. More importantly, the franchise is now poised for a big uptick in fan interest by holding the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft—a selection expected to be UConn star Paige Bueckers—and is planning to relocate downtown next year to a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium.

To that end, KFAA president and general manager Carolyn Mungo called the Wings “the perfect next addition to our growing roster of sports broadcasts.”