Report: Amazon Enters Bid for Disney’s 22 Regional Sports Networks

Those channels include the YES Network, the home of the New York Yankees.

CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. Jeff Bezos attends the Amazon Emmy Award afterparty at Sunset Tower, in West Hollywood, California, on September 18, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / TOMMASO BODDI        (Photo credit should read TOMMASO BODDI/AFP/Getty Images)
CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. Jeff Bezos attends the Amazon Emmy Award afterparty at Sunset Tower, in West Hollywood, California, on September 18, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / TOMMASO BODDI (Photo credit should read TOMMASO BODDI/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

Amazon is attempting to acquire the 22 Fox regional sports networks Walt Disney Co. must divest as a condition of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, according to a report by CNBC.

Those channels include the YES Network, the home of the New York Yankees. The Yankees, who currently own a piece of YES, are also bidding in an attempt to own the entire network.

YES is also the home of the Brooklyn Nets and Major League Soccer’s New York City Football Club.

Were Amazon to win the bidding, the regional networks would add to its growing sports coverage, which already includes the NFL’s Thursday Night Football.

Joining Amazon in first-round bidding for all 22 regional networks are Apollo Global Management, KKR Co, The Blackstone Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and TEGNA.

The second round of bids are expected before year-end and due diligence on the bids begins next week, according to CNBC.

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