DIRECTV Confirms Multi-Year Carriage Deal with Diamond Sports Group for Bally Sports Networks
Reports first emerged that DIRECTV had come to a new pact to carry Bally Sports channels earlier this week.
DIRECTV is officially staying in business with Diamond Sports Group (DSG). The satellite TV provider, which claims 11.3 million customers on linear plans and its live TV streaming service DIRECTV STREAM has announced it has agreed to a multi-year carriage deal to continue offering Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs) on its CHOICE package and above. It’s an important milestone for Diamond, particularly as it works through a carriage dispute with Comcast to attempt to make a similar agreement with that cable channel distributor.
Key Facts:
- DIRECTV customers can now use their credentials to log into the Bally Sports app and stream live games.
- Viewers can also purchase Bally Sports+ through DIRECTV if they don’t want to upgrade to the CHOICE plan.
- The deal is an important piece of Diamond’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy as a going concern.
Various reports confirming a new deal between DIRECTV and Diamond first began to circulate on Monday, but this is the first time that official confirmation has been offered by the satellite provider.
Bally Sports RSNs will continue to be housed on DIRECTV and DIRECTV STREAM’s CHOICE, ULTIMATE and PREMIER packages. The channels carry 12 MLB teams, 11 NHL teams and 15 NBA teams in local markets, offering viewers all games from those teams not broadcast on national channels like ESPN or TNT.
“DIRECTV has always been a sports leader and we continue to see significant opportunity for both our residential and commercial customers in local sports,” said DIRECTV Chief Content Officer Rob Thun. “We want to ensure our customers receive more flexibility, choice and value, and this agreement provides them with those capabilities. Diamond’s regional sports networks remain a key component of our live sports offering, and we look forward to working with Diamond and the many popular MLB, NBA, NHL, and other teams it retains for years to come under this new agreement.”
Viewers will be able to use their DIRECTV login credentials to access the Bally Sports app and watch games on the go. In addition, DIRECTV will sell the Bally Sports+ streaming service to customers, allowing viewers who don’t want to upgrade their plan to get content from Bally Sports to watch at their leisure.
“We are pleased to extend our relationship with DIRECTV to provide high quality local sports telecasts for passionate fans in the home markets of our team partners,” said David Preschlack, CEO of Diamond. “This is a significant development for Diamond, and we highly value the relationship we have built with DIRECTV and their customers over the course of many years. We remain focused on executing the steps necessary to reorganize Diamond with a structure that drives sustainable value for our stakeholders, including our distributors and league and team partners.”
How Long Will Comcast Carriage Dispute Last?
Diamond has also recently reached a multi-year carriage agreement with Charter Communications, another important broadcast partner. Its own court filings show that Charter, DIRECTV and Comcast account for 81% of total viewership on Bally Sports channels.
The Comcast negotiation has proven thorny for Diamond, however. The last carriage deal between the two sides expired on April 30, and as of May 1 Bally Sports channels are blacked out for Comcast cable customers. These carriage deals are an indispensable part of Diamond’s bankruptcy reorganization plan, which it could win final approval for as early as June after more than a year under the shelter of Chapter 11 protections.
Diamond won approval to extend the solicitation window for its reorg plan until November, so a blackout of its channels on Comcast cable plans won’t sink its ambitions to leave bankruptcy. But the sooner it leaves bankruptcy the better, and that could incentivize it to come to a deal with Comcast more quickly. Carriage disputes can last anywhere from a few days to months at a time, but it would behoove Diamond to try and limit the length of this dispute by any methods it can.
Relations between DIRECTV and Diamond were downright disastrous at points last year, but the two sides were able to put those problems aside and reach a new deal. Viewers should expect Bally Sports channels to return to Comcast airwaves at some point in the near future, though determining exactly when is a guessing game for now.
DIRECTV STREAM
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