As regional sports networks (RSNs) collapse under the weight of cord-cutting, debt, and rights-fee inflation, one US broadcaster is quietly rewriting the playbook for local and regional sports distribution — and doing it over the air. Gray Media Group, through its emerging Gray Sports Networks (GSN) division, is proving that station groups can successfully revive and localize the RSN model, pairing broadcast reach with modern digital infrastructure. Its most visible proof of concept? Gray’s Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network (GCSEN) — a growing regional multicast channel serving Louisiana, broad swaths of Alabama and Mississippi, and border counties in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida — anchored by a broadcast partnership with the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans. From RSN Collapse To Broadcast Ingenuity Regional sports media has been in free fall since Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy took down Bally Sports networks across the U.S., leaving dozens of pro basketball, hockey and baseball teams scrambling for local-game distribution. Gray saw opportunity in the wreckage. Rather than waiting for new RSN operators to emerge, the company leveraged its 38-state-wide local broadcast footprint — roughly 114 markets and more than 180 stations — to deliver a new kind of regional sports experience built on free, over-the-air (OTA) access and locally produced content. Gray Sports Networks was created to formalize that effort: a portfolio of de facto regional sports TV brands airing games and shoulder content from major, minor and fledgling leagues and local high schools across its multicast subchannels and digital platforms. Each regional network is tailored to its specific market, using existing Gray infrastructure — from production crews to local newsrooms — to deliver professional-grade coverage without the cost structure of legacy MVPD-delivered RSNs. Gulf Coast As Flagship The Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network represents this concept at full scale. Launched in 2024, GCSEN broadcasts Pelicans games and other local sports programming on Gray digital subchannels like WVUE (New Orleans), WAFB (Baton Rouge, La.), WLBT (Jackson, Miss.), WLOX (Biloxi, Miss.), WDAM (Hattiesburg, Miss.), and WBRC (Birmingham, Ala.), reaching a multi-state audience once served by cable-exclusive RSNs. |
