Bally Sports, which is still working on a plan to get out of bankruptcy, got a bit of a reprieve on Friday after a judge denied former parent Sinclair Broadcasting’s motion to for the regional sports network to immediately pay it for management services, according to a spokeswoman for Bally Sports.
The judge also pushed the MLB’s motion to get Bally Sports to either pay the league the full amount for the season or terminate their TV contract, the spokeswoman said.
Sinclair had filed a motion in the court demanding Bally Sports and its parent, Diamond Sports Group, pay $147 million in management services.
The decisions came out of the latest of many bankruptcy hearings for Bally Sports as it struggles to stay alive. Both Sinclair and the MLB have said that they believe Bally Sports will shut down after the end of the 2024 baseball season, a claim that Bally Sports has denied.
It’s just the latest in the tangled tale of Bally Sports, which was formed from the spin-off of 22 then-Fox Sports regional sports network following the acquisition of Fox by Walt Disney. Sinclair previously owned Bally Sports, but spun off the company to protect itself when the business headed south amid a rise in cord cutting and a drop in viewership and revenue.
Earlier this year, Bally Sports sued Sinclair, alleging it had overcharged the regional sports network for those management services and profited from the business at the expense of parent Diamond Sports Group. Sinclair had claimed it was giving Bally Sports a discount on its service.
The MLB, meanwhile, argued that Bally Sports should make a decision on the contract now, and argued that its belief that the business will shut down at the end of baseball season negates the need for extra time. The judge adjourned the motion until January.
The full filing has not been posted, and we’ll update the story as more information becomes available.