FanDuel Sports Network North

FanDuel Sports Network North is an American regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as a FanDuel Sports Network affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focus on professional and collegiate sports teams based in Minnesota.

The network maintains production studios and offices located in downtown Minneapolis, which are shared with production and office operations of Fanduel Sports Network Wisconsin, which formerly served as a subfeed of Fox Sports North until it was spun off into a separate channel in 2006.

FanDuel Sports Network North is available on cable providers throughout Minnesota, western Wisconsin, northern Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota; it is available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.

The channel originated sometime in 1982 as WCCO II, a local cable channel owned by Midwest Radio and Television (later Midwest Communications), and created as a project by CBS affiliate WCCO-TV (channel 4, now an owned-and-operated station of the network) that broadcast a slate of local and general entertainment programming. On March 1, 1989, it was relaunched as the Midwest Sports Channel. It was also the same year that the network would acquire rights to Twins broadcasts.

MSC's main draws in its early days were games from the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota North Stars. The channel also served as an affiliate of SportsChannel America, filling much of its broadcast day with a mix of national programs and paid programming from the channel, and incorporated sports news tickers provided by the channel. MSC was largely considered a premium channel until the early 1990s, and did not even have full cable coverage in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area until it was added by Continental Cablevision's St. Paul system on its expanded basic cable lineup in 1994.

During the North Stars' 1991 Stanley Cup Playoff run, Midwest Sports Channel declined to exercise an option to carry the North Stars' home games (as the SportsChannel America package which MSC carried did not include rights to in-market home games). Instead the North Stars cut a revenue-sharing deal with a group of 11 cable companies to televise the games as a pay-per-view events at a then very expensive price of $12.95 a game.

The following season the North Stars parted ways with Midwest Sports Channel and instead signed a new contract with Prime Sports Midwest to televise 17 games out-of-market while in-market viewers would be offered the games on pay-per-view through the same revenue sharing agreement with local cable operators that was used for the previous season's playoffs. The price for these games were $9.95 each with an option to purchase the entire package at a reduced rate. Additionally, 25 games were televised on KMSP-TV.

In 1992, CBS acquired the Midwest Sports Channel, through its purchase of Midwest Communications (which it previously had 47% ownership). For the 1992-93 season MSC once again televised some North Stars games, but the channel lost the broadcast rights permanently when the North Stars relocated to Dallas after the end of the season. MSC expanded its lineup of professional sports events in 1995, after it landed a television contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves to hold the regional cable rights to the team's games for the 95-96 season.