It has been a drama-filled year for Bally Sports as it entered bankruptcy and left many wondering if it would keep MLB games. Recently it was reported that the Twins have been paid $54.8 million to keep their games on Bally Sports for the rest of 2023. The Guardians have also reportedly been paid at least for the month of July.
Now though, it is being reported by The New York Post that Bally Sports is asking MLB teams to take a 20% discount on what they get from their TV rights. This deal would for example, keep Diamondbacks on Bally Sports and let Diamondbacks games stream through Bally Sports.
The catch is that MLB has the right to approve any TV deals like this, and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has reportedly threatened to block the deal. The MLB is offering to help any team that loses its TV rights and will even help cover any losses that team faces by losing their RSN deal.
Bally Sports agreed to a $1.5 billion deal in 20215 with the Arizona Diamondbacks but now wants the team to accept just 80%. Not only that, Bally Sports want Diamondbacks to hand over streaming rights to their games also.
Bally Sports is hoping that bankruptcy will help it cut the costs it must pay and get more streaming rights.
If Bally Sports fails to make payments to any of these teams, it wouldreturn the TV rights to the MLB. This comes as Diamond Sports ask the judge to clarify if they can get refunds for games they already paid for after they let the TV rights return to the MLB.
Bally Sports still has yet to pay the Reds and has a few more days to make that payment before it would lose TV rights. For now, we will have to wait and see what Bally Sports does next with the Reds and the Diamondbacks.