Fubo Reaches New Carriage Deal with Diamond Sports Group, but Comcast Outage Continues
Fubo Reaches New Carriage Deal with Diamond Sports Group, but Comcast Outage Continues
The deal comes as both Fubo and Diamond face serious questions about their long-term viability.
Diamond Sports Group’s negotiating team has notched another victory. Diamond has been toiling through bankruptcy proceedings since March 2023, and winning approval for its reorganization plan from creditors will require the company to have carriage deals in place with its most important broadcast partners for its Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs). Fubo is one of those partners, and the two sides announced on Wednesday that they had agreed to a new carriage agreement that will keep Bally Sports channels on the live TV streaming service for multiple years to come.
Key Details:
- Fubo and Diamond have a multi-year carriage agreement, though financial terms were not disclosed.
- Diamond operates 18 RSNs in various markets and offers NBA, NHL, and MLB regular season games on the channels.
- Diamond still does not have a new carriage deal with Comcast, and Fubo is fighting for survival against the upcoming Venu Sports streamer.
The new carriage agreement encompasses all 18 Bally Sports channels: Bally Sports Detroit, Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports Great Lakes, Bally Sports Indiana, Bally Sports Kansas City, Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports New Orleans, Bally Sports North, Bally Sports Ohio, Bally Sports Oklahoma, Bally Sports San Diego, Bally Sports SoCal, Bally Sports South, Bally Sports Southeast, Bally Sports Southwest, Bally Sports Sun, and Bally Sports West and Bally Sports Wisconsin.
“We are thrilled to renew our agreement with Fubo, a major player in the vMVPD space and a leader in live sports streaming, to continue providing high quality local broadcasts to fans,” Diamond CEO David Preschlack said. “With the vast majority of our distribution partners in multi-year carriage agreements, Diamond remains focused on completing our reorganization and emerging as a sustainable, profitable business.”
The deal is a highly important one for Fubo, which has made its reputation as a sports-centric live TV service. A key part of that programming lineup is regular season games from the NBA, NHL, and MLB; all three leagues see their teams play the vast majority of their contests each year on RSNs. Despite the current instability of the regional sports model, Diamond is still the largest single provider of RSNs in the market.
How Much Does New Carriage Deal Help Diamond, Fubo?
There’s no question that Diamond and Fubo are both better off as partners than they would be if they had been unable to reach a new carriage deal. That would almost certainly have led to Bally Sports channels disappearing for Fubo subscribers, as they have for Comcast customers thanks to an ongoing carriage dispute between the cable provider and Diamond.
Comcast dropped Bally Sports channels from its airwaves on April 30, and both sides have predictably laid the blame on the other for their failure to agree on a new deal. Comcast wants to house Bally Sports channels on a higher Xfinity TV plan, which Diamond is trying to resist. Comcast is one of Diamond’s most important TV partners, and the lack of a carriage agreement has caused MLB, NBA, and NHL executives to voice concerns about the company’s bankruptcy process.
Fubo, too, has bigger worries on its plate at the moment. The streamer’s legal teams are hard at work preparing arguments against Venu Sports, the joint venture sports streaming service that will be offered directly to consumers by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Fubo CEO David Gandler has called the entire operation a “sports cartel,” and his company is suing the three outlets involved over alleged anti-trust violations.
Gandler has called his quest to halt Venu Sports a “duel to the death,” and there is some data to support his fears that Venu could mean the end of Fubo. Carrying RSNs is important for Fubo, but it will suddenly matter much less if customers can watch national sports channels like ESPN, TNT and FS1 for around half the price that Fubo charges, especially since the Bally Sports+ streaming service is available in all areas where Bally Sports channels are found — though, of course, that service only holds the rights to stream five of the 12 MLB teams on Bally Sports linear networks.
All of this is to say that Diamond and Fubo won’t have much time to rest on their laurels after their new carriage deal. Both companies have important court dates on the horizon; Diamond is due back in bankruptcy court in June for a vote on its reorg plan, while Fubo has a document delivery deadline for its lawsuit approaching early next month. But at the very least, Fubo subscribers don’t have to worry about losing access to Bally Sports channels at any point in the next few years.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service offering a robust lineup of approximately 150 premier channels, with plans starting at $63.99 per month. This entry-level package provides access to local broadcast affiliates 18 of the leading 35 cable channels channels, and valuable regional sports networks (RSNs).