It is a tumultuous time for executives at Diamond Sports Group and the fans of teams that have their games air on the company’s Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs). Earlier this week, Diamond Sports — an independent subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) — announced that it would not make the scheduled payment on its outstanding debt, triggering a 30-day window in which the company must come up with a plan to satisfy creditors or begin bankruptcy proceedings. While this announcement caused both the NHL and Major League Baseball to openly prepare for the possibility of taking over Diamond's broadcast rights, the other major sports league that airs games on Bally Sports networks has seemingly thrown a lifeline to the floundering broadcaster.

According to a report from John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, the NBA has renewed its streaming rights deal with Diamond for another year, allowing the company to continue to stream games for the 16 teams in its portfolio through the 2024-25 season on its direct-to-consumer streaming service Bally Sports+. In January 2022, the two sides agreed to a one-year deal that would require Diamond to hit 13 different conditions in order to be renewed.

However, while this would appear to be a vote of confidence in the struggling platform, there might be a more financially-focused reason for the latest agreement. The NBA’s rights deals with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are also set to expire after the 2024-25 season, so lining up all of its contracts could allow the league to shop them at the same time, including in different packages than it has ever been able to before.

Recently, executives from Disney — which broadcasts games on ESPN and ABC — and WBD — which airs games on TNT — have been open about the possibility of not renewing their deals with the league, including WBD CEO David Zaslav insisting that his company “doesn't have to have the NBA.” But, if the league’s longtime partners do not re-up their deals beginning in 2025-26, there are plenty of other outlets interested in the rights.

Amazon, Apple, and Comcast are all reportedly interested in securing NBA rights should they become available, and all three would want to put a significant focus on streaming. So, by making sure that both their linear and streaming deals come up again at the same time, the NBA might be positioning itself for the best possible outcome for the future.

Diamond Sports Group Owns the Streaming Rights to 16 NBA Teams:

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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.

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The service offered two subscription options: a monthly plan for $19.99 per month or an annual plan for $189.99 per year, which averaged out to $15.83 per month when prepaid annually. New users could start with a 7-day free trial. In areas with more than one Bally Sports network, subscribers could add a second channel for $29.99 per month.

With Bally Sports+, fans could stream live games from 16 NBA teams and 11 NHL teams. Five Major League Baseball teams — the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, and Tampa Bay Rays — were also available for streaming.

Bally Sports+ was designed specifically for fans who lived in-market for their local teams. If you lived outside your team’s market, you would have subscribed to alternative services such as MLB.TV for Major League Baseball, NHL.TV via ESPN+ for National Hockey League games or NBA League Pass for National Basketball Association coverage.

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$+ / year

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