Report: Arizona Diamondbacks to Become Second MLB Team to Break from Bally Sports RSNs
The Arizona Diamondbacks are departing from Bally Sports Arizona. John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reports that while a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing to officially settle the matter of the Diamondbacks’ rights was pushed from Monday, July 17 to Tuesday, July 18, the team was not able to reach a new agreement with Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group (DSG). When the hearing does take place, it is expected that DSG will file to reject the team’s contract.
MLB will then take over broadcasts of the team’s games, as it did in May for the San Diego Padres. The league filed a statement with bankruptcy court Judge Christopher Lopez last week declaring that it was ready to do so, having made arrangements with local cable providers to ensure no interruptions in Diamondbacks broadcasts. It’s also likely that MLB will make Diamondbacks games available to stream locally on its out-of-market games service MLB.TV for the rest of the season.
For several weeks, it had looked like DSG and the team would be able to work out a new deal. Diamond had originally filed to reject Arizona's contract in June, but then asked the judge to reschedule the hearing for that purpose after positive discussions with the team led to renewed optimism. Discussions reportedly led to a proposal that would give Diamond a 20% discount off its previous agreement with the team, and send the Diamondbacks’ streaming rights to Bally Sports+.
There was still some thought that the team and the company would agree on a new pact heading into last weekend, but on Sunday, the team’s play-by-play man Steve Berthiaume said during a Bally Sports Arizona broadcast that the team could soon be on a different channel. That seemed like an omen, and his cautionary prediction is now poised to become reality.
Details about what channel numbers fans living in the Arizona market will find Diamondbacks games on once they are pulled off Bally Sports Arizona have not yet been revealed. DIRECTV and DIRECTV STREAM customers will have access somehow, as the company filed its own motion with the court last week to ask not to be forced to pay for the same content twice by shelling out carriage fees to continue offering customers Bally Sports Arizona and whichever new channel carries the Diamondbacks going forward.
The removal brings the number of MLB teams DSG owns the broadcast rights to down to 12. Every club it loses makes it harder for the company to make the case to major cable providers that it’s worth carrying when the time comes to renegotiate its carriage arrangements. Bally Sports Arizona has the dubious distinction of having lost its NBA team and MLB team in the span of a few days; the Phoenix Suns officially departed the channel for local broadcast networks late last week.
The Cleveland Guardians are the next team due a rights payment by Diamond Sports Group. The check is due Aug. 1, and though the company has been paying its fees to Cleveland all year, it would be unwise to be completely certain the team is going to get its allotment this time around.
MLB.TV
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