With a judge approving the company’s disclosure agreement and setting up a June confirmation hearing, Diamond lawyer says the company is poised to exit Chapter 11, while insisting a just-approved November deadline extension is merely a “prophylactic motion.”
Preparing to complete what had seemed just last fall to be a highly unlikely successful bankruptcy restructuring, Diamond Sports Group on Wednesday announced a multiyear carriage renewal deal with what is now the largest pay TV operator in the U.S., Charter Communications.
The agreement, which was contained in a court filing made Wednesday, is subject to court approval. Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed for protection in March. The company said in a financial filing last year that it had debt of $8.67 billion.
Signaling a major thaw in the icy relationship between Major League Baseball and bankrupt regional sports networks operator Diamond Sports Group, lawyers for the league on Friday said they’d agreed on a framework through mediation to keep 11 MLB clubs on Bally Sports channels through the 2024 season.
The agreement, which was contained in a court filing made Monday, is subject to court approval. Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed for protection in March. While there will be a reduction in rights payments for some teams, the local rights for 15 franchises will revert back to those teams and the league at the end of this season. The NBA is also on the verge of beginning negotiations for national rights, which expire after the 2024-25 season.
Sinclair Broadcast Group wants to pay pennies on the dollar to regain control of a nationwide chain of regional sports networks — which it had paid $10.6 billion to acquire four years ago only to see it fall into bankruptcy this spring. Sinclair, which owns 185 TV stations in 86 markets, has offered roughly $850 million in partnership with Bally’s owner Soo Kim to regain control of its bankrupt subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group, which airs local games on TV under the Bally Sports brand and owns the rights to 39 teams across MLB, the NBA and NHL, sources say.
Exclusives
Making perhaps its harshest rebuke yet of the cash-strapped regional sports network that still controls local TV rights to 12 of its clubs, Major League Baseball told a Houston bankruptcy court Wednesday that Bally Sports network operator Diamond Sports Group should not be granted another extension to come up with a Chapter 11 restructuring plan.
Diamond Sports yesterday filed a motion in bankruptcy court to compel DirecTV to pay for past carriage fees that Diamond says DirecTV owes it for carrying San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks games. The company, which owns the Bally Sports regional sports networks, and declared bankruptcy last March, alleges that DirecTV stopped paying the fees after Diamond over the summer ended its agreements to broadcast the Padres and Diamondbacks games.
As the NBA approaches a new season, releasing its 2023-24 schedule earlier this month and rolling out the matchups to watch over the next year, a nettlesome issue continues to hover over the league and half of its teams. Diamond Sports Group, the company that operates 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks across the United States and owns the local television rights for 15 NBA teams, including the Mavericks, Clippers, Cavaliers and Spurs, among others, continues to have its future linger in bankruptcy court. That has caused some uncertainty about how those teams will broadcast their games locally during the upcoming season.
In a lawsuit, the Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports Group claims it had to pay high management fees.
Diamond’s largely stiffed secondary creditors are asking the bankruptcy court why they’ve been left holding the bag while JP Morgan was made whole.
Houston court OKs Diamond Sports Group’s latest motion to tear up its regional sports networks contract with yet another MLB team on Tuesday.
Sinclair’s bankrupt regional sports networks subsidiary Diamond Sports Group has rendered a payment to the Cleveland Guardians, ensuing that the Major League Baseball team will remain on Bally Sports Great Lakes through July. The payment, first reported by Crain’s Cleveland Business, only temporarily suspends the drama surrounding the local TV rights for a handful of MLB teams.
Diamond Sports, which declared bankruptcy in March, made its scheduled July 1 payment to the Cleveland Guardians, according to Crain’s Cleveland Business. But the publication writes that the owner of the 18 Bally Sports regional sports networks must make another payment to the Guardians by Aug. 1. The July 1 payment should guarantee that the Guardians will stay on Bally Sports until at least the end of this month. But it’s unclear what happens if Diamond Sports misses the next deadline.
Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports Group has already used federal bankruptcy protection to walk away from one Major League Baseball team, the San Diego Padres, with which it has a money-losing distribution deal. And it’s looking more and more like Diamond will banish more MLB teams from its Bally Sports portfolio of regional sports networks.
Diamond Sports, the owner of the 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks, next week could forego its broadcast rights to the San Diego Padres by failing to deliver its regular rights payment to the team. A Texas bankruptcy court judge has set a May 31 hearing to rule on Diamond’s motion to reduce its payments to the teams.
The Texas bankruptcy court overseeing Diamond Sports Group’s restructuring says the NBA franchise must first try to negotiate a new deal with Sinclair’s regional sports network subsidiary.
Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group subsidiary has paid the Cincinnati Reds the initial payment for the team’s 2023 local TV rights, within a mandated 15-day grace period after the April 17 due date, keeping the MLB club on regional sports network Bally Sports Ohio.
If Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group doesn’t pay Cincinnati’s MLB team by Friday, the club is set to broadcast its own games starting Saturday vs. the White Sox on a new channel. The Reds have handshake agreements with Charter Communications, the dominant cable TV supplier in the Cincinnati DMA, as well as DirecTV.
Diamond Sports Group, which runs the Bally Sports regional sports networks, said that the agreement the NBA’s Phoenix Suns announced today to have games broadcast on TV stations owned by Gray Television breaches its contract with the team and violates bankruptcy law.
A Texas bankruptcy court overseeing the Chapter 11 restructuring of Sinclair’s regional sports networks subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group, has told Diamond to pay half of what it owes to four of the five Major League Baseball franchises to which it had previously withheld TV rights payments for the just-started 2023 baseball season. The unpaid balances, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said, will be rendered next month, after the restructuring process resets the individual team fees Diamond must pay.
Major League Baseball has asked a federal court overseeing the bankruptcy case involving Sinclair Inc.’s Diamond Sports Group to terminate the broadcaster’s rights to games played by the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins if it does not make an immediate payment connected to licensing rights.
Major League Baseball filed a motion last week to the Texas bankruptcy court overseeing the restructuring of Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary that manages the Bally Sports regional sports network channels, demanding that the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins be paid for their TV rights or released from their Bally Sports contracts. Meanwhile, baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, who haven’t received their Bally Sports rights payment either, filed a separate but similar motion on their own behalf.
Change is coming quickly for Diamond Sports Group, with the bankrupt Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary parting ways Monday with its president, veteran Universal executive Steve Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s role will be filled by Diamond CFO David DeVoe, with his reports answering on an interim basis to CEO David Preschlack.
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports networks division, Diamond Sports Group, has officially missed the deadline for a $30.8 million TV rights payment to Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, signaling that the restructuring plan Diamond entered into bankruptcy with earlier this week has more than a few outs to get before it retires the side. For now, with the Diamondbacks set to open their 2023 regular season on the road against the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 30, it appears there will be no disruption to Diamond’s Bally Sports Arizona channel carrying the games.
The move came after it missed a $140 million interest payment last month. Diamond owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner. Those networks have the rights to 42 professional teams — 14 baseball, 16 NBA and 12 NHL. The company said in a release Tuesday night that it expects to continue to operate during the bankruptcy process and that coverage of games should not be affected.
Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of U.S. regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, toppled by a more than $8 billion debt load. The company, which is an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas. Diamond said it was still finalizing the restructuring support agreement with creditors. The plan could see Diamond separate from Sinclair to become a standalone operation, Diamond said.
Diamond Sports Group, the subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group that operates the troubled Bally Sports regional sports networks, appointed David DeVoe Jr. chief operating officer, effective immediately. The company also named Eric Ratchman president of distribution and business development, a new post.
After Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports Group skipped about $140 million in interest payments due Wednesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Diamond has told MLB it intends to pay its baseball teams, but he called it an “unfolding story” that could change. “In the event that MLB stepped in, what we would do is we would produce the games, we would make use of our asset with the MLB Network to do that, we would go directly to distributors, Comcast, Charter, the big distributors, and make an agreement to have those games distributed on cable networks,” he added.
The missed payments by Diamond Sports Group started a 30-day grace period that could be the prelude to a bankruptcy filing, which could lead to changes in how televised games are made available to viewers. Diamond said: “The company intends to use the 30-day grace period to continue progressing its ongoing discussions with creditors and other key stakeholders regarding potential strategic alternatives and deleveraging transactions to best position Diamond Sports Group for the future.”
Diamond Sports Group, the division of Sinclair Broadcast Group that runs the troubled Bally Sports regional sports networks, has a deadline of Wednesday to make a $140 million interest payment. How the day plays out could have a big impact on the future of local sports on TV. While most reports have indicated that Diamond — which now operates independently from Sinclair — will decide not to make the payment, a source familiar with the situation maintains that Diamond making the payment remains in play.
Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair Broadcast Group unit that runs the Bally Sports regional sports networks, is planning to file for bankruptcy next week when a big interest payment is due. Sinclair borrowed about $9 billion when it bought the 19 Fox regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. in 2019. Sinclair rebranded the networks after making a deal with Bally’s Corp.
“I think you should assume that if Diamond doesn’t broadcast, we’ll be in a position to step in,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday after an owners’ meeting. “Our goal would be to make games available not only within the traditional cable bundle but on the digital side, as well.”
Concerned about a possible bankruptcy for Diamond Sports Group, the subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group that operates networks under the name Bally Sports and owns local broadcasting rights to 14 of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, the league has formed a new economic study committee that will gather next week at the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.
America’s largest owner of local sports channels is heading toward a complex $8.6 billion debt restructuring in bankruptcy court as it stakes its future on a new direct-to-consumer streaming service. After leveraging up to buy regional sports networks from Walt Disney Co. in 2019, Diamond Sports Group LLC is suffering from a decline in cable TV subscribers, spurring negotiations with creditors and major sports leagues about its viability as a going concern. The outcome will have serious implications for the $55 billion world of sports media rights
Billy Chambers will start with Major League Baseball on Feb. 1 in the newly created position of executive vice president for local media, the commissioner’s office said Thursday.
Talks for MLB, the NBA and NHL to acquire the nation’s dominant owner of regional sports networks are faltering — raising the likelihood of a bankruptcy filing that could hasten a nationwide migration of sports fans away from cable TV.
