Anaheim Ducks Are The Latest To Jump Ship From Bally Sports

The state of regional broadcasts in the NHL is in flux as Diamond Sports — which owns all the Bally Sports networks across the country — continues to find itself in financial trouble.

However, despite Bally still gearing up to broadcast some teams' games this season, others are jumping ship and the latest to do that is the Anaheim Ducks.

And if you're a Ducks fan living in Southern California, this is cool for you because all of the team's regionally televised games will be completely free for you.

The Ducks announced they are teaming up with A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC), owner of Victory+, a free, ad-supported streaming platform, as well as local TV station FOX 11 Plus to provide streaming and broadcast coverage of all of the team's regionally televised games beginning this season.

"We are so pleased to announce that fans in our entire television market, via stream or traditional television (cable or over-the-air) will see locally broadcast games free of charge," Ducks President Aaron Teats said in a statement. 

"It is a significant organizational priority to connect Ducks fans with our entire market and for every fan in our region to have the opportunity to watch Ducks games without cost across multiple, accessible platforms."

The Anaheim Ducks are the latest NHL team to move their games to local over-the-air TV and streaming. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Ducks aren't the first to go this route as deals with regional sports networks become less of a good deal for teams.

According to the Associated Press. The Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers are both leaving Bally this season, with the Stars moving to Victory+ while the Cats will be on Scripps Sports for local broadcasts.

The Seattle Kraken will also move over to over-the-air stations but will also stream on Amazon Prime Video this season, while the Vegas Golden Knights already have one season under their belt streaming games on their own platform called KnightTime+.

Eight NHL teams will continue to have their games broadcast on Bally Sports this season, but I think we should expect to see more teams going with options like the Ducks are choosing in the years to come.