On Wednesday morning, Diamond Sports Group revealed a proposed restructuring settlement agreement to emerge from Ch. 11 bankruptcy. The company entered the state last year and began selectively rejecting rights contracts, resulting in the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks being displaced from their local television networks. Anticipating such a transaction before the fact, Major League Baseball instituted a local media department prepared with the resources to produce and disseminate broadcasts to ensure uninterrupted service for fans. Moreover, the league agreed to compensate 80% of the lost funds the teams would have received from the Diamond television deals in order to ensure competitive balance.
Before this potential outcome was introduced, Diamond Sports Group had gained clarity regarding paths forward with the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League. The tentative plan was to relinquish those rights back to the leagues following the conclusion of their seasons. From there, the outlet was going to return Major League Baseball rights back to its teams following the 2024 campaign and shut down the business.
Instead, a $100 million investiture by Amazon and lawsuit settlement with parent company Sinclair has cultivated a path for junior creditors to assume business operations. If this resolution is ultimately adopted, consideration to approve or deny the cooperation agreement would be nullified since it is based on different terms.
During a court hearing on Wednesday, a representative for Diamond Sports Group revealed that the company intends to broadcast nine of the teams that it currently has rights for next year. A report from Sports Business Journal earlier in the process divulged that Diamond would pay the full rights fees to all 11 MLB teams in its portfolio except the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers. The Guardians and Rangers are in multi-year contracts with Diamond whereas the Twins are on an expiring deal and have not yet figured out its television home for the new season.
“…We’re still all left in the lurch right now about what’s actually going to happen,” Ken Carman said on Wednesday’s edition of The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland. “It seems that they are going to be on TV some way, one way or the other, but I just don’t know where the hell they’re going to be found.”
Guardians games have been televised on Bally Sports Great Lakes since 2021 after the rebranding of SportTime Ohio upon its acquisition by Diamond Sports Group. The bankruptcy proceedings and uncertainty surrounding broadcasts next season have created some concern among fans. Moreover, there have been reports stating that the ambiguity surrounding the situation has curtailed spending by organizations.
“The question is how many hoops did we need to jump through to be able to see it – and even more importantly than any of that is how much money the team was going to get because obviously the way that they operate, it sucks that as a fan we need to root for really rich people to get richer, but we have to sit here and root for a better TV deal,” Lima said, referencing the Guardians. “We’ve seen their offseason spending; we’ve seen how they’ve operated continuously when it comes to this. If they have this bargain basement bottom-of-the-barrel TV deal, it’s just going to hurt all of us.”
Carman believes that it will be more difficult for fans to find and sign up to watch games through Prime Video if the deal is approved, but he knows it would be a better situation than not being able to watch games.
Although the Kansas City Royals seem to be safe from potentially being cut from Bally Sports Kansas City’s programming, 610 Sports Radio midday co-host Cody Tapp believes adding Amazon ultimately provides a better value proposition. The premium subscription service includes Prime Video access, which broadcasts Thursday Night Football and features a variety of sports documentaries, programming and live games.
“Amazon Prime for an entire year – say you just paid a year outright – it’s about $140,” Topp said. “If you lived in California and you wanted to watch the Kansas City Royals – you moved out of state; it’s unfortunate – [but] you want to watch the Royals? It’s $130 to get MLB.TV so you can watch the Royals every game…. This is no different to me. This is good no matter what because this is going to ease the access.”
