Bally Sports had until today to make a payment to the Reds to keep their TV rights. Now according to Alden González from ESPN, that payment has been made, and the Reds will stay on Bally Sports for the rest of 2023.
Now though, Bally Sports is looking at losing two more MLB teams. In a filing this week, both DIRECTV and MLB asked the court to transfer the Bally Sports TV contracts for the Diamondbacks to the MLB or cancel them. Both groups said it would be unfair to make DIRECTV and other cable TV providers continue to pay for games Bally Sports is not airing.
This comes as MLB has started talks with TV providers to air Diamondbacks’ games for the rest of 2023. To make that easier, MLB is hoping the judge will cancel the old contracts or transfer them to the MLB.
Even though Bally Sports will reportedly soon lose TV rights to the games and return the rights to MLB, TV providers would still be under contract to pay Bally Sports. This would force DIRECTV and others to pay both MLB for the games being aired and Bally Sports even though the games are no longer shown on that network.
It was reported by The New York Post that Bally Sports asked MLB teams to take a 20% discount on what they get from their TV rights. This deal would have kept the Diamondbacks on Bally Sports and let Diamondbacks games stream through Bally Sports.
The catch was that MLB has the right to approve any TV deals like this, and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has reportedly blocked the deal. The MLB is offering to help any team that loses its TV rights and will even help cover any losses that the team faces by losing their RSN deal.
Bally Sports may also have to fight the MLB for its renewal of the Twins. After this season, the Twins’ contract is up for renewal, and the MLB is reportedly interested in buying the Twins’ TV rights. This comes from a report by the StarTribune.
Bally Sports is hoping that bankruptcy will help it cut the costs it must pay and get more streaming rights. Now the question is will they drop even more teams on top of the Padres, who have already lost their TV partnership with Bally Sports.