Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports, has been in bankruptcy now for a few months, and a major hearing is scheduled next week. During that hearing, a Judge will decide how much Bally Sports must pay MLB teams during its bankruptcy. Now though, we are getting some ideas of what Bally Sports is asking for during its bankruptcy.
According to Sports Business Journal, Bally Sports is promising to pay the full amount owed to each MLB team if they agree to let them stream games direct to consumers in the market through their app. Bally Sports’ parent company went on to say that if they can’t make payments, they will return the TV rights to MLB at any time during its contract.
Reportedly the Angels, Braves, Cardinals, D-backs, Guardians, Padres, Rangers, Reds, and Twins have all failed to reach a deal with Bally Sports over their streaming rights. This deal could mean these teams would start streaming in the market through the BallY Sports app without the need for a TV provider.
There is talk that Bally Sports may elect to not pay the Padres and drop their contract. Reportedly Bally Sports is losing money on the team, and it may skip the payment to the team next week, returning the TV rights to the MLB. That would put MLB’s backup plans in the event an RSN network is unable to pay its rights into action.
There have been rumors that MLB would stream the games through the MLB.TV app for free. There have also been reports that MLB has been in talks with streaming partners like YouTube to stream the games in the market for fans as MLB. It has been reported that MLB is looking for other cable TV networks interested in airing MLB games to replace Bally Sports if needed. For now, we will have to wait and see what happens.