Bankrupt U.S. sports broadcaster Diamond Sports Group reached agreements on Friday to televise Texas Rangers, Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins games in 2024, giving it a roster of 12 Major League Baseball teams as it moves ahead with an Amazon-backed restructuring agreement.
Major LeagMajor League Baseball rejected a proposed roughly $150 million lifeline extended by Amazon to the nation’s largest regional sports network as it languishes in bankruptcy. Amazon attempted to come to Diamond’s rescue last month by offering to invest roughly $150 million in the company and take over streaming broadcasts for the 11 baseball teams it carries. However, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called foul on the proposal ahead of a bankruptcy hearing slated for Wednesday, according to a source close to the situation.
Amazon is in talks to invest in the biggest regional-sports programmer, a move that would advance the e-commerce giant’s aggressive push into sports content as it takes on streaming rivals like Disney and Netflix. If an agreement is reached, Amazon’s Prime Video platform would eventually become the streaming home for Diamond’s games.
While Major League Baseball’s owners stole the headlines this week when they voted to approve the Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, the cogs behind another potentially transformative development for the sport churned away in a Houston courtroom. Judge Christopher Lopez of the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas approved a deal between Diamond Sports and the NBA teams whose games it is under contract to broadcast on its Bally Sports networks. In the process of petitioning the judge to approve that pact, a lawyer for bankrupt Diamond Sports suggested the company hopes to come to a similar agreement with the 12 MLB teams whose games it is still contractually obligated to broadcast. But lawyers for both Diamond Sports’s parent company, Sinclair, and MLB raised concerns with the NBA deal, centered on its effect on the company’s ability to pay for its baseball obligations, even through next season.
Bankrupt broadcaster Diamond Sports, the nation’s largest regional sports network, has made a take-it-or-leave-it offer to cut rights fees to the NHL and NBA in a last-ditch bid to avoid liquidation. Diamond proposed cutting the fees to both leagues by up to 20% ahead of a bankruptcy court-imposed Sept. 30 deadline, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said Thursday.
The courtroom continues to heat up for Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of regional sports networks. On Thursday, a bankruptcy judge approved Diamond’s request to bring in mediators as it is negotiates with creditors to reach a reorganization plan. The company said in court papers it needs to meet “substantial plan progress” ahead of the start of the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons in October.
Exclusives
Doug Johnson was answering emails at the Miami East hotel on May 30 when his phone rang with the call he had been awaiting for more than two months: Major League Baseball was taking over San Diego Padres’ television broadcasts the next day from financially troubled Diamond Sports. Pictured: Doug Johnson, SVP and executive producer for Major League Baseball, watches as producers and directers prepare to broadcast a baseball game between Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, July 18, in Atlanta. (John Bazemore/AP)
The ecosystem, held together by the pay TV bundle, is showing wear and tear — like the MLB taking over a bankrupt network — as teams and programmers game out what’s next.
The two sides postponed a Thursday bankruptcy court hearing amid what they jointly describe as “positive discussions.”
Judge Christopher Lopez made the ruling on Thursday in Houston. Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed in March. Diamond said in a financial filing last fall it had debt of $8.67 billion.
Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, said in a statement Tuesday that it decided “not to provide additional funding to the San Diego RSN that would enable it to make the rights payment to the San Diego Padres during the grace period and will no longer be broadcasting Padres games after Tuesday.” The Padres become the first team that MLB will take over production of its broadcasts. MLB set up a local media department during the offseason to prepare for a bankruptcy filing by Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports, which took place in March.
Major League Baseball plans to step up to the plate to broadcast games of roughly a half-dozen teams from a bankruptcy-bound regional sports network provider so that fans don’t miss a single pitch. Diamond Sports owns the home broadcast rights to 14 baseball teams, but sources close to the situation say the money-hemorrhaging company is expected to file for bankruptcy March 17 — days before the season opens on March 30.
