Judge Extends Bankruptcy Proceedings for Diamond Sports Group; NBA, NHL Could Face Battles Similar to MLB
Judge Extends Bankruptcy Proceedings for Diamond Sports Group; NBA, NHL Could Face Battles Similar to MLB
Fall is coming, and for many sports fans that means excitement is building until they can watch their favorite professional sports team head back to action. The NHL season gets underway on Oct. 10 and the NBA starts up two weeks later on Oct. 24.
As things stand currently, many fans will have to tune into a Bally Sports-branded regional sports network (RSN) to see their team play. The company holds the rights to 15 NBA teams and 12 NHL teams, which stream on Bally Sports+ as well as airing on linear Bally Sports channels.
When those teams hit the arena for the first time this season, Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group (DSG) will still be in bankruptcy court. According to reporting from Sportico, last week Judge Christopher Lopez gave DSG an additional 80 days to come up with a plan for paying down its debt load of more than $8 billion to creditors and emerge as a viable business.
Diamond knows it’s running out of time to make that case, but a lawyer representing the NHL at last week’s hearing emphasized that fact by saying that while it had had “constructive discussions” with the company, it could “ask for relief on short notice” from Judge Lopez if DSG has any issues paying the rights fees it owes to the clubs it carries.
That means that NHL teams could start disappearing from Bally Sports RSNs, as two MLB teams have done this season. DSG has rejected the contracts of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, as its deals with those teams caused the company to lose money and it could not reach agreements with either for lower rights fee payments. MLB took over broadcasts of their games, and special in-market streaming options were created for both clubs on MLB.TV.
NBA fans face a similar scenario. That league renewed a broadcasting deal with Diamond that now carries through the 2024-25 season in February, but the new contract includes several outs for the NBA. If DSG fails to make a rights payment to one club, the league can pull all of its teams from Bally Sports RSNs, and can set up in-market streaming platforms to offer their games as well. Media and tech companies like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Apple and others have expressed interest in local NBA streaming rights if the teams do depart Bally Sports networks.
More importantly for Diamond, its carriage contracts with DIRECTV and Comcast are expiring this fall. If it can’t come to new deals with those providers, which service around 47% of pay-TV households in the United States, it would likely be the end of the line for the RSN owner. The entire sports media landscape is evolving, and at this point it’s looking increasingly likely that DSG might not make it through another NBA and NHL season with all the teams it currently holds the rights to.
Bally Sports+
Bally Sports+ was a direct-to-consumer streaming service that provided live, in-market games without requiring a cable or satellite subscription. It allowed fans to watch their local Bally Sports regional sports network (RSN) without a traditional TV package.