Milwaukee Brewers Codexery

FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin

Regional sports network serving Wisconsin and beyond.

FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin is a regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group, formerly Diamond Sports Group, and operates as part of the FanDuel Sports Network. It covers sports events across Wisconsin, concentrating on Milwaukee-based professional teams, especially the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA.

The channel began as a sub-feed of Fox Sports North, known as the "Wisconsin" feed, until 2007. It was called Fox Sports Wisconsin from 2007 until 2021. Its main studio and office are in downtown Milwaukee, with secondary offices and a production hub in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. The network is available on cable in Wisconsin, far eastern Minnesota, the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northwestern Illinois, and Iowa, and nationwide via DirecTV satellite. It produces about 2,600 hours of local programming each year and reaches over 1.7 million homes.

The first attempt to cable Bucks and Brewers games, Sportsvue in 1984, failed due to scattered cable systems, uncabled areas including Milwaukee, poor team performance, and the statewide availability of Chicago Cubs games on superstation WGN-TV. Sportsvue ended in early 1985, leading to the sale of the Bucks to future senator Herb Kohl. The teams then moved to a statewide broadcast network on WVTV and later WCGV-TV, but those stations only aired road games.

Later, the Wisconsin Sports Network—a game-time-only channel for Brewers and Bucks games—was owned by Time Warner Cable's Milwaukee franchise and Group W. In 1996, Minneapolis-based Midwest Sports Channel (MSC), owned by CBS after its merger with Group W's parent Westinghouse, took over. That fall, MSC became a Fox Sports Net affiliate. Until 2007, Wisconsin was one of three regional subfeeds of MSC/FSN North, alongside feeds for the Twin Cities and the rest of Minnesota, plus Iowa, the Dakotas. CBS sold the network to News Corporation in 2000, and it rebranded as FSN North in April 2001. MSC's late-night WCCO newscast continued on the Wisconsin feed until the Fox purchase. The network then kept offices at Fox-owned WITI in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, and shared some programming with that station.

On April 1, 2007, FSN North turned the Wisconsin feed into its own channel, FSN Wisconsin, launching from Milwaukee facilities at the start of the 2007 Brewers season.

Quick Facts

Launched
1 April 2007
Network
FanDuel Sports Network
Owner
Main Street Sports Group
Country
United States
Language
English
Headquarters
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Former names
  • FSN Wisconsin (2007–2012)
  • Fox Sports Wisconsin (2012–2021)
  • Bally Sports Wisconsin (2021-2024)
Replaced
FSN North (in broadcast area only)

Facts from the source article.

Background

The network originated as the Wisconsin sub-feed of Fox Sports North until 2007, when it became a separate channel, FSN Wisconsin, launching on April 1, 2007, coinciding with the start of the 2007 Milwaukee Brewers season. It was rebranded as Fox Sports Wisconsin in 2012, then as Bally Sports Wisconsin in 2021, and finally as FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin on October 21, 2024, as part of a sponsorship agreement between Diamond and sports betting company FanDuel.

The channel has undergone multiple ownership changes. It was part of the Fox Sports Networks until 2019, when Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios bought the networks from Disney. In February 2021, the Brewers and Sinclair announced a new contract giving the Brewers a minority share in the network. Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 14, 2023. The network broadcast 2,600 hours of locally produced programming per year and reached more than 1.7 million homes.

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