A Bally Sports show is shown during the eighth inning of the game between MLB's Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 9, 2023.
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The National Basketball Association and NHL are concerned about the future of Diamond Sports, and whether the owner of the regional sports network can put together a viable business plan before the upcoming seasons this fall.
Diamond Sports – which operates its networks under the Bally Sports brand – has been under bankruptcy protection since March last year. The leagues are concerned that the owner of the largest group of regional sports networks will not have a viable business plan before the 2024-25 season.
Lawyers from each league raised their concerns during a status conference in bankruptcy court on Tuesday, after Diamond said it would postpone the hearing to confirm the reorganization plan from mid-June until late July.
“I want to reiterate why timing is so important to the NBA,” NBA lawyer Vincent Indelicato said in court on Tuesday. “The start of the 2024-2025 season is rapidly approaching.” “A lot of things need to be done well before the season to produce and distribute the matches correctly.”
An NHL attorney expressed similar concerns, noting that if Diamond Sports is unable to formulate a workable business plan in the coming months, the leagues could be left scrambling to find options to produce and broadcast games in local markets. Some Major League Baseball teams have already moved on without their Bally Sports network.
Meanwhile, several NBA and NHL teams have reached deals with local broadcast station groups to carry local games.
Diamond Sports must develop a reorganization plan, outlining its future outside bankruptcy protection, and obtain court approval to proceed with it. The approval paves the way for the company to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
The NBA has urged Diamond Sports to have “a very clear business plan no later than July,” Indelicato said Tuesday.
For Diamond, it has been a long road to formulating a reorganization plan filled with various negotiations – with lenders to restructure its huge debt load, with leagues and teams to acquire television rights and with pay-TV distributors who carry the games.
Collapse of recent negotiations between Diamond Sports and Comcast The order has hampered the sports network operator's progress, the company's lawyers said Tuesday.
Last month, Comcast customers lost access to Bally Sports' networks, affecting fans of 11 MLB teams. The transmission outage hasn't caused an issue yet for NBA and NHL fans, since both leagues are in the postseason. Regional sports networks broadcast local regular season games.
An attorney for Diamond Sports said Tuesday that the company is still in negotiations with various stakeholders, but has reached an impasse with Comcast, leaving it no choice but to “explore alternatives.”
Distributors like Comcast have been losing pay-TV customers very quickly in recent years as people opt for streaming alternatives, and regional sports networks have been among the channels most affected. Furthermore, Diamond Sports had a debt load of over $8 billion arising from SinclairThe company acquired Networks in 2019.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
