Major League Baseball will continue to be the broadcast home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, and Colorado Rockies for the 2024 season. The rights to the teams will become available ahead of the 2025 season, according to Fan Nation.
This comes after Diamond Sports Group, parent company of Bally Sports, missed a rights payment to the Diamondbacks amid bankruptcy proceedings. Diamond later rejected a contract that would require them to pay the team in full, and MLB took over broadcasts.
The regional sports network group planned to stop airing MLB games after 2024 but following Amazon’s $115 million investment — which greatly increases its chances of exiting bankruptcy — Bally was trying to keep some of the TV rights for the 2025 rights.
The change comes, however, as the MLB itself wants to get the rights back for its own direct-to-consumer streaming package. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to launch the service in time for next year.
“Realistically, my target to having a digital package I can take to market would be for the ’25 season,” Manfred said at an owners meeting in Florida.
The MLB teams that Bally Sports currently has contracts with are the Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins, Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Minnesota Twins.
Earlier this month, Bally secured a deal with Guardians, Twins, and Rangers to continue airing their games in the 2024 season. The deal was approved by a federal bankruptcy judge on Friday.
Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately said Diamond held the rights for the Colorado Rockies and were going to court with MLB over TV rights for the Guardians, Twins, and Rangers.