Earlier this week, Bally Sports’ parent company failed to make an important payment to the Reds. This starts a 15-day grace period for Bally Sports to make the payment or lose rights to the Reds games on May 6th, 2023, according to Sports Business Journal.
If that happens starting May 6th, the MLB will have to put their backup plans in place to start streaming games in markets for Reds fans.
In total, Sinclair owes $55 billion in sports-media rights over the life of their contracts, according to Bloomberg. Since Sinclair bought Fox Sports RSNs, payouts from cable networks are reportedly drying up as companies are refusing to pay the high price Sinclair wants for its Bally Sports RSNs.
Other reports say that Sinclairs’ Diamond sports group has about $585 million cash in hand but owes about $2 billion in fees to teams this year. Now they are hoping that MLB teams will agree to let them pay less, helping them through bankruptcy. It has also been reported that Bally Sports may try to cut some unprofitable teams to help it lower its costs.
According to The New York Post, MLB will stream MLB games for free in markets that have their regional sports network shut down or lose rights to MLB games. The Reds may be the first team to have their rights returned to MLB but it may not be the last this year.
A report from The Athletic, Bally Sports wants to cut what they pay the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, and Minnesota Twins. These two teams may also get their TV rights returned to them depending on what the judge rules.
Cord Cutters News will be watching this closely, and as news breaks, we will have full coverage on how to watch MLB games during all this terminal with RSNs.