For NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, TV network’s new name is the only change

What was once red is now blue, right down to Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy’s ties. When the Carolina Hurricanes last played on Saturday, the game was televised on Bally Sports South. By the time they took the ice in Edmonton on Tuesday night, they were officially playing on the FanDuel Sports Network.

The people and faces were the same on what is now FDSN South on the same old channel, but the name, blue accent color, graphics and microphone flags — rushed across the border on short notice — were all different, bearing the now-familiar logo of the online sportsbook which purchased the naming rights to the bankrupt group of 16 regional sports networks in a deal that closed Friday.

While the changeover wasn’t official until Monday, the Hurricanes’ broadcast teased the change during Saturday’s game against the Blues, a Bally production promoting the future FDSN production of the Edmonton game.

Branding aside, some existing FanDuel online content may bleed over onto the network but for the most part, nothing has changed under the hood. Same broadcasters on the road — Maniscalco, Tracy and Hanna Yates — same production team, same app, same channel. And that’s good news for the Hurricanes at a time when other teams have found themselves at the mercy of a local-sports TV industry in upheaval.

As viewers increasingly move away from expensive cable and satellite packages that for years charged customers for RSNs whether they watched them or not, some pro teams have found one of their most reliable revenue streams to be anything but.

That trend reached its apex when Diamond Sports Group, which bought the Bally/FanDuel networks from Fox, declared bankruptcy in 2023. In the process, it shut down several RSNs and forced those NHL, NBA and MLB franchises to find alternatives to get their games on television (or streaming online) in their markets.

This summer, that included the Anaheim Ducks, leaving Diamond/Bally/FDSN with the rights to eight NHL teams, along with eight MLB teams and 13 NBA teams. Diamond also abandoned its package of ACC football and basketball games during the summer of 2023. Those games, produced by Raycom, now air on the CW.

But amid all the turmoil, FanDuel Sports Network South nee Bally Sports South nee FS Carolinas nee Fox Sports South has remained stable. The network, which also carries the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies and Nashville Predators in various markets, benefits from a lucrative broadcast deal with the Atlanta Braves.

That, combined with the regional synergies in Atlanta and North Carolina, has left this region largely immune from the issues Diamond is having globally. The Hurricanes expect FDSN South to remain viable as Diamond attempts to exit bankruptcy this winter, with a hearing scheduled for mid-November and pressure from MLB to reach a resolution by January 1, when baseball rights fees become due.

In August, Diamond negotiated an agreement with the NHL that reduced rights fees for several of the teams still affiliated with the broadcaster, but not the Hurricanes, who are perfectly content with the status quo.

“We’re comfortable seeing where things go into the spring,” Hurricanes CEO Brian Fork told The News & Observer. “We’re hoping for a continued long-term relationship through the 2028-29 season and the existing deal we have with them. Certainly, over the summer, we looked into backup options and talked to the league and some other teams about, what does the future look like?”

And while the Hurricanes have an official sports betting sponsor in Fanatics Sportsbook, Fork said there’s no conflict with FDSN’s new branding. The Hurricanes had ads for three different sportsbooks in the arena during the playoffs last spring.

By any name, the Hurricanes and what is now FDSN South have been partners for more than 25 years, since the team moved to North Carolina in 1997. In that first season in Greensboro, 29 games were televised, and for many years the network was obligated to carry only 65. This year, what is now FDSN South is carrying all 72 of the Hurricanes’ games that aren’t national broadcasts, as has been the case since 2013.

So for all the new branding, not much has actually changed for the Hurricanes. They’d just as soon it stay that way.

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