Amazon Nears Surprising Deal to Stream MLB, NBA, NHL Games from Bally Sports

The soap opera that is the ongoing saga of Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy proceedings has taken another unexpected turn. A little over one week after it was reported that Amazon had backed out of its plan to invest $115 million in DSG’s regional sports networks (RSNs), a new report from the New York Post indicates that the online retail giant is closing in on a deal to stream in-market games for 27 MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.

Key Details

• According to the NY Post, Amazon is close to finalizing a deal to stream games from 27 teams via a partnership with Diamond Sports Group
• Last week, Amazon reportedly abandoned plans to invest $115 million in DSG.
• Diamond is currently still in bankruptcy proceedings and any partnership with Amazon could prove to be very valuable.

The Post’s Josh Kosman reports that the streaming deal could launch in October as the NBA and HL regular seasons kick off. Under the plan, fans will be able to stream the games of teams from their home market for roughly $20 per month. The exclusive report makes it seem as though this would be a new, Amazon-specific platform, calling it a “new streaming service.” But between the availability of games and the price point, it sounds as if it is the same setup as Bally Sports+, Diamond’s own direct-to-consumer streaming service.

Whether Prime Video simply makes Bally Sports+ available via its Prime Video Channels platform — as it does for numerous other streaming services — or if it brings the games into a new sports tier, the visibility of any streaming service being available on Prime Video has significant benefits. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Diamond Sports Group is still struggling to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections having entered the court-supervised process on the Ides of March 2023. While the RSN owners have recently made deals with the NBA and NHL, which were approved by the court this week, and have recently reached carriage terms with Comcast and DIRECTV, Major League Baseball has been vocally frustrated by how long the process has taken. The new target date for a decision on DSG’s ability to emerge from bankruptcy is in November, but the baseball league says that that is too late.

“This is now the fourth season in a row that Major League Baseball is heading into the offseason with a complete lack of information and clarity with respect to what’s going to happen,” MLB lawyer James Bromley told the judge earlier this week. “We are not months and months away from next year. We are there today. If the debtors are unable or unwilling to provide [rights fees for 2025], it will be necessary to find replacement broadcasting for them. To do that on any other timetable than this fall, it’s going to create substantial costs.”

As one of the creditors in DSG’s bankruptcy, MLB has the ability to oppose any reorganization plan that the channel owner presents. Despite years of animosity, baseball hasn’t done that yet, but it is not ruling out such a step if there is not considerable progress in the coming weeks.

“We need the court’s attention on this issue, and we need [Diamond] to be committed to doing this with speed in the short timeframe that I just described,” Bromley said. “And frankly, if it doesn’t happen, we obviously reserve our rights to come back for relief, including more drastic relief than we’ve looked at in the past.”

Getting a deep-pocketed partner like Amazon is obviously incredibly valuable for a company in DSG’s position. Whether or not it is enough to secure the future of the company is yet to be determined, but it is another step in the right direction on what has been a painstaking and arduous journey.