MLB

MLB remains solid, while Generation Gap and The Prank Panel take hits.

The Disney-controlled channel is trying to find a way forward in the streaming age and has had discussions with the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball.

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.

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.

The two sides postponed a Thursday bankruptcy court hearing amid what they jointly describe as “positive discussions.”

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed into law Thursday a $380 million public financing package to help build a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics on the Las Vegas Strip as MLB’s commissioner outlined a months-long approval process for the A’s proposed move there.

The deal that backers said will help further establish Las Vegas as the new “entertainment and sports capital of the world” still needs the governor’s signature, and MLB still must approve the A’s move to the Las Vegas Strip, but both are anticipated. Pictured: This rendering shows a view of the proposed new ballpark with a retractable roof at the Tropicana site.

High-profile proposals to help build a stadium for the Oakland Athletics and lure major film makers to Las Vegas through billions of dollars in tax credits are in flux after Nevada lawmakers adjourned their four-month legislative session.

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.

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.

Team president Dave Kaval said Wednesday night the team finalized a deal last week to buy the 49-acre site where the A’s plan to build the stadium close to the Las Vegas Strip with a seating capacity of 30,000 to 35,000. Kaval said the A’s hope to break ground by next year and would hope to be move to their new home by 2027. He said the move was necessitated by being unable to build a new venue in the Bay Area.

Ted Leonsis, owner of three Washington-based professional sports franchises, offered more than $2 billion to buy the Washington Nationals from the Lerner family late last year, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. It’s not clear whether the Lerners rejected the offer or simply did not respond to it, though one person with direct knowledge of the process said the parties have remained in touch.

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.

Apple TV+ will begin its second season of “Friday Night Baseball” on April 7. It will carry twin bills over 25 weeks with no local blackout restrictions. In a change from last year, when there were doubleheaders on the East and West coasts, both games will be going on simultaneously most weeks.

The baseball commissioner talks new rules, changing TV picture as the 2023 season gets underway.

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.

Doug Johnson was hired as senior vice president and executive producer of local media, Greg Pennell as senior vice president of local media and Kendall Burgess as vice president of local media technical operations, the commissioner’s office said Wednesday.

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.

Baseball could be a blueprint for other sports organizations enter the CBD space after MLB scored an alliance with CBD maker Charlotte’s Web (note: the brand is not sold in dispensaries) last week. The deal marks first partnership between one of the Big Four pro sports leagues and a cannabis business.

Amazon’s Fire TV has added thousands of hours of free ad-supported video and live content to its platform in the U.S., including sports highlights from MLB, NBC Sports and Fox sports. New free content is accessible from dedicated rows on the Fire TV Home and Free screens and spans three categories of sports news and highlights, trending trailers, and food and cooking. Amazon is touting live, on-demand, and short-form content. Users can access without any sign-ups, downloads or fees to get the instant video playback.

MLB, the NBA and the NHL may orchestrate a buyout of the nation’s dominant owner of regional sports TV networks, whose shaky finances pose an increasing threat to their teams. The trio of pro-sports leagues are expected to soon begin talks with Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports, which operates 21 regional Bally Sports networks that account for more than half the local broadcast markets around the country, sources close to the situation say.

Several weeks into the baseball season, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network remains an outlier, keeping its announcers for the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals at home for road games. Instead of traveling, the broadcasters are calling the games from the broadcasts booths inside their local stadiums, a tricky task for play-by-play announcers Bob Carpenter with the Nationals and Kevin Brown with the Orioles. The effect on the broadcast has been noticed by fans, with delayed commentary a frequent frustration, such as when a key Oakland error was called several seconds after Orioles fans saw it on MASN

Mark Lerner, Ted Lerner’s son who now serves as the club’s managing principal owner, said Monday that the family has hired New York investment bank Allen & Co. to research potential investors, and possibly buyers, for the MLB franchise.

The Chicago Cubs are looking at direct-to-consumer streaming service that would make  games available to fan who don’t subscribe to cable or satellite TV, a team official said. The team wants get the service ready for the 2023 season, but Carne Kenney, president of business operations for the Cubs, said that Major League Baseball, distributors, pricing and technology issues all must be overcome.

Deals with Apple TV Plus and Peacock could help revive the national pastime.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock is nearing a deal with Major League Baseball for exclusive rights to stream games in a new Sunday time slot, according to people familiar with the discussions, as the league looks to increase digital partnerships. The deal with NBCU would involve a package of 18 games, some beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET and others just after noon, the people said. That would limit the conflict with Sunday games that typically start at 1 p.m., making the telecasts more valuable for Peacock. The games would primarily be played on the East Coast, given the early timing, the people said.