Last week, Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of Bally Sports, was able to retain rights to the majority of NHL and NBA teams that air on their Regional Sports Networks (RSNs). That agreement didn’t include the future broadcast rights for the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans. For their part, last season, 8 Pelicans games aired on free TV and former Mavs owner Mark Cuban has said the team would look at other options once their Bally Sports contract ended.
With the NBA and NHL futures locked in, for now, the MLB teams make up the other piece of the equation. Diamond Sports Group has to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by April 1, 2025, as part of those extension deals, or the leagues can terminate their contracts, Awful Announcing reports.
MLB wants the judge in the bankruptcy case to accelerate that date so that teams can plan their broadcasts for the 2025 season, from the report:
“I simply implore Your Honor, as we’re going forward, to keep in mind there are substantial issues at risk here and at play that need to be addressed, and we cannot allow the timelines that has existed in the past, that exists going forward,” said James Bromley, MLB’s outside counsel. “We need to bring these issues to a point, and we need to do that with alacrity, speed and frankness among all the parties.”
12 MLB teams currently air on Bally Sports RSNs, but there have been reports of some teams, including the Minnesota Twins, creating their own channel if the media company doesn’t get out of bankruptcy. This could become more common as teams plan alternate broadcasting options for the 2025 season and spring training if Bally Sports parent company shuts down. Three of the MLB teams currently under contract expire at the end of this season.
The following addresses the concerns the MLB has from a report by The Atheltic on the case:
“We can’t go on and face our 2025 season in the first and second quarter of next year. The time to face the 2025 season is today,” Bromley said. “We need the court’s attention on this issue, and we need the debtor (Diamond) to be committed to doing this with speed in the short timeframe that I just described. And frankly, if it doesn’t happen, we obviously reserve our rights to come back for relief, including more drastic relief than we’ve looked at in the past.”
An MLB team’s local TV revenue makes up 12 to 32 percent of its total revenue, depending on the club, with an average of around 21 percent, according to numbers obtained by The Athletic.
As Bally Sports struggles, radio stations are flourishing as more fans are listening to broadcasts. Recently, it was reported that Amazon backed out of a $115 million deal with Bally Sports which was a huge blow to get the company out of bankruptcy. However, DSG was able to reach a new deal with Comcast to bring the networks back to Xfinity customers.
DSG hasn’t made the financials of the Comcast deal and the NBA & NHL extensions available to MLB per the Awful Announcing report. The MLB’s deal with DSG isn’t similar to the ones of the NHL and NBA, which is a point of contention in the negotiations. The two sides are discussing a similar deal for MLB to give the league more certainty.
Time will tell if the MLB and their RSN provider can work out something before the 2025 season begins or the April 1 deadline.