Bally Sports North is back on Comcast. Here is what you need to know.

Comcast, by far the largest cable TV provider in Minnesota, emerged as the winner of a three-month battle with Diamond Sports over negotiations involving Bally Sports channels.

Comcast (Xfinity) wanted to put the regional sports networks, including Bally Sports North, on a higher pricing tier with other sports channels. With its leverage slipping away as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy, Diamond Sports (the parent company for the Bally Sports channels) agreed to those terms this week.

Bally Sports North was back for Comcast subscribers — with a caveat — on Thursday; the Twins were off that day and the Lynx are on a long Olympic break, meaning Friday’s Twins game against the White Sox is the first major local programming back on BSN since the impasse ended.

Star Tribune Twins writer Phil Miller and I have both been reporting on this story for months, and we talked about it on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

Here are five questions and answers about Bally Sports North’s return and where we stand now:

I’m a Comcast subscriber. Do I have Bally Sports North back?

That depends. If you were already a subscriber to the “Ultimate” package, you have Bally Sports North. If you were a subscriber to the “Popular” package, which used to have Bally Sports North, you no longer have it. That might be an unpleasant surprise, to say the least, since the Ultimate package is $20 more per month.

That said, Comcast is offering a three-month free upgrade to the Ultimate package, which also includes several other sports channels unavailable on the Popular package (such as NBA TV, NFL Network, MLB Network, NHL Network and ESPNU). If you are primarily a Twins and/or Lynx fan, that will get you through the rest of the season and you can decide whether you want to keep it.

What if I don’t want to pay for the higher tier?

A small but meaningful sampling of readers on Friday revealed that a good number of Minnesota sports fans dropped Comcast sometime during the three-month stalemate, and many of them subscribed to FuboTV. They are one of the two streaming providers (DirecTV Stream is the other) offering a lower-priced bundle of channels that has Bally Sports North. Readers are generally happy with the switch.

Is there an option now to just buy access to the Twins or Bally Sports North?

There is not a standalone product as part of this resolution because that is dependent on Diamond Sports acquiring the streaming rights to Twins games. Teams (and primarily MLB) have been reluctant to give up those rights because the league eventually wants the vast majority of teams to be on one platform under the MLB umbrella.

So at least things are settled in the short-term, right?

Well, sort of. You at least know your options for watching Friday’s Twins game. But Diamond Sports is still in bankruptcy, and now that the Comcast issue has been resolved a judge should rule sometime this month whether Diamond has a viable path to remain in business.

What’s going to happen next?

The Twins are on a one-year contract with Diamond Sports. Regardless of whether Diamond remains in business, it stands to reason that the Twins could choose a different option in 2025 — likely a production and distribution model through MLB.

The Wolves and Wild could face more imminent questions and tough decisions based on the bankruptcy outcome. It was reported this week, for instance, that Diamond is going to drop as many as five NBA teams from its Bally Sports programming (the Wolves aren’t one of them) and ask their remaining teams (including the Wolves) to take a rights-fee reduction of 30% to 40% for the upcoming season.

What all of this underscores is that the golden age of huge local TV revenues driven by cable bundles is dying. What is taking its place isn’t exactly clear, but it will likely be driven by leagues and will be less lucrative than the old model.