Bally Sports has eradicated its entire national desk, leading most of those employees to be laid off from the network. Managers, writers and other content creators lost their jobs after helping execute the company’s content strategy upon operating regional sports networks.
Earlier in the week, executive producer of gaming content Brad Evans and digital sports content producer Maggie Hendricks announced that they had been relieved of their duties. All of these layoffs are part of a larger plan to adopt a new localized video strategy as the regional sports network persists in a dynamic media ecosystem.
Eight employees of the national desk were laid off by the company; however, there were some who ended up lasting through the cuts. Popular correspondent Annie Agar and hockey content creator Pete Blackburn remain. Both work on multi-year contracts, which contrasts from the other employees who lost their jobs.
Sources with knowledge of the situation told Front Office Sports that the moves were unrelated to the bankruptcy, which parent company Diamond Sports Group recently requested assistance from a mediator in resolving. As a part of these proceedings, Diamond will make determinations as to which local teams it looks to keep and those it wants to neglect, selectively rejecting contracts. While MLB has a local media division in place to broadcast games if Diamond drops the rights, it is unknown how the NBA or NHL would handle such a situation.
