MLB to Take Over Broadcasting San Diego Padres’ Games Locally, on Streaming After Diamond Sports Fails to Make Payment
After months of coming in just under the deadline, the first of potentially multiple other shoes has finally dropped when it comes to Bally Sports’ bankruptcy and its ability to broadcast Major League Baseball games. Diamond Sports Group (DSG), Bally Sports’ parent company, failed to make a contractual payment to the San Diego Padres during the late-payment grace period that ended on Tuesday, May 30, meaning that the company would be forfeiting its rights to air the team’s games. Therefore, as it has promised to do since even before Diamond’s bankruptcy process began, the MLB has stepped up and will begin broadcasting Padres’ games starting on Wednesday, May 31.
Major League Baseball will take over both the production and distribution of all locally-distributed games for the club starting with Wednesday’s game against the Miami Marlins at 6:40 p.m. ET. Those games will be broadcast locally on DIRECTV Channel 694-3, AT&T U-verse Channel 781, Cox Yurview Channel 4, and Spectrum Channel 305. Therefore, the Bally Sports San Diego regional sports network (RSN) will no longer be the home for any Padres’ games.
“As Commissioner Manfred previously stated, Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute Padres games to fans throughout Padres territory,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden said. “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with the Club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Padres games by more than 2 million homes.”
In a bit of a shot at Bally Sports, in a press release, MLB noted that these new broadcast options significantly increase access to fans. Previously, Padres games could only reach roughly 1.130 million homes in the San Diego market, but now through the league’s distribution, they will be available to approximately 3.264 million homes, and increase of 189%.
In addition, Major League Baseball is also adding the Padres’ in-market broadcasts to its out-of-market streaming service MLB.TV. That means that fans in the San Diego media market can subscribe to the package and watch their team’s games for the first time. MLB.TV traditionally only allows fans to watch games that are not available otherwise in their home region. However, as a result of this new arrangement, Padres fans can sign up for the service for $19.99 per month or $74.99 for the rest of the season following a seven-day free trial.
However, this will be a separate service from the rest of the MLB.TV out-of-market plan, but because of this new setup, baseball will be able able to remove the blackout restrictions for Padres games that had previously been distributed on Bally Sports San Diego. In order to give fans a chance to get acclimated to the new broadcasting situation, MLB will make all Padres’ games free to stream through Sunday, June 4 with an MLB login at MLB.com, Padres.com, and on the MLB app on mobile and connected devices.
“We have been preparing for this groundbreaking moment,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said. “The Padres are excited to be the first team to partner with Major League Baseball to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option through MLB.TV without blackouts while preserving our in-market distribution through traditional cable and satellite television providers. Our fans will now have unprecedented access to Padres games through both digital and traditional platforms throughout San Diego and beyond.”
San Diego’s broadcast team will continue to call games, so fans won’t have to worry about anyone replacing TV announcer and analysts Don Orsillo, Mark Grant, and Bob Scanlan. However, MLB is promising some changes to the broadcasts.
“Through the power of Major League Baseball and the Padres, we are working to elevate the game broadcast experience for all Padres fans,” MLB EVP for local media Billy Chambers said. “New technology, better picture quality and increased access are just a few of the items we are working on to better tell the story each and every night.”
While DSG is still working through the bankruptcy process and a huge has recently allowed the company — a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcasting Group — to make partial payments to teams, the Padres are one club that Diamond has determined that it could do without. The company has reportedly decided to focus on maintaining the rights just for the teams that it believes can make a profit. By not making its contractually required payment by the end of the day on Tuesday, Diamond has waved the white flag on the club’s rights, and there are potentially more to come throughout the remainder of the season.
MLB.TV
MLB.TV is the official streaming service of Major League Baseball. You can see every out-of-market game live or on demand, and choose home or away TV and radio feeds. The app allows fans to watch up to four games simultaneously on the same screen through their Multi-view feature.