Amazon, Sinclair, & TEGNA Are All Trying to Buy FOX’s Regional Sports Networks

Amazon has reportedly jumped in with a bid for 21st Century Fox's 22 regional sports networks that Disney is selling off as part of its $71.3 billion Fox acquisition.

The company's bids include an offer to buy the YES Network, the New York Yankees' television broadcast partner, CNBC reported. (The YES Network, which airs Yankee games, is among the stations on the auction block, and may still be sold separately.) The U.S. Department of Justice has forced Disney to auction off the channels as a condition of acquiring Fox's entertainment assets.

Fox did not submit a bid in the first round, although there's potential it will join in the second round.

CNBC said it was unable to learn the amount of the bids. The Yankees also hold a minority stake in the network.

For Amazon, purchasing the RSNs and the sports rights that come with them would make sense against the backdrop of the company's efforts to secure live sports rights for its platform.

The digital giant, which already has a foothold in sports via NFL Thursday Night Football rights as well as soccer and tennis, is among a cluster of media companies and private equity firms in the running. The DOJ required the divestiture to preserve competition between Fox's and Disney's cable sports programming; Disney owns ESPN.

In June, Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said Disney's agreement to sell off the RSNs could generate around $19 billion to $20 billion in value (assuming a 10x EBITDA multiple off approximately $2 billion EBITDA).

The Fox RSNs are Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Carolinas, Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Florida, Fox Sports Indiana, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports New Orleans, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Ohio, SportsTime Ohio, Fox Sports Oklahoma, Fox Sports San Diego, Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southeast, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports Sun, Fox Sports Tennessee, Fox Sports West, Prime Ticket, Fox Sports Wisconsin, and the YES Network.