Diamond Sports Group said in court today that it plans to broadcast just one MLB club next year, the Braves, per reporting from Evan Drellich of The Athletic. The company, which owns the Bally Sports Networks, also had deals with the Reds, Tigers, Royals, Angels, Marlins, Cardinals, Rays but plans on walking away from those. As Drellich notes, as part of the company’s ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, they can accept and reject contracts though the measures have to be approved by the court. The Brewers, Guardians, Twins and Rangers had one-year deals with Diamond for 2024. Those 11 clubs will now have to renegotiate new deals with Diamond or find other broadcasting arrangements.
Drellich provides some more specifics on X, noting that it’s more complicated than Diamond simply abandoning these 11 clubs, but that seems to be the company’s goal regardless. Alden González of ESPN adds some more details, noting that a confirmation hearing has been set for November 14 and 15 in Houston. The Marlins and Diamond have mutual interest in working out a new deal, per a report from Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The Angels are working on a new deal with Diamond, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.
Per Drellich, league representatives said they were “sandbagged” by the news. “We have no information about what is being done,” said Jim Bromley, lawyer for MLB. “We’ve had no opportunity to review and now we’re in front of the court and being asked to make our comments.”
The ongoing financial situation of Diamond Sports Group has been a significant part of baseball’s economic landscape for a long time and this could prove to be a major development as part of that narrative. Largely due to cord cutting, the regional sports network model has been gradually collapsing in recent history. In the 2022-23 offseason, reports emerged that Diamond was in rough shape financially and the company filed for bankruptcy before the 2023 MLB season began.
They dropped their contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during that 2023 campaign. It threatened to do the same with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers for 2024 but ultimately renegotiated lower fees with those clubs and continued those broadcasts through this year. Now it seems like the company is continuing down this path but with an even more aggressive severing of their existing ties to Major League Baseball.
This is bound to have short-term effects on clubs and players. These contracts have been sources of significant revenue for clubs, as MLBTR covered earlier this year. The 11 teams that Diamond plans to cut ties with were previously receiving between $33MM (Brewers) and $125MM (Angels) on an annual basis. Per reporting in April, the Padres were set to receive about $60MM in 2023 before their deal with Diamond collapsed. The league reportedly covered about 80% of those fees last year but didn’t plan to do so in 2024 and beyond.
Uncertainty around broadcast revenue seemingly played a major role in the 2023-24 offseason, which was disappointing for players. Teams like the Padres, Rangers, Twins and others were either cutting payroll or not increasing it as much as had previously been expected, with the TV situation often being used as justification. This appeared to play a role in various free agents not finding markets as strong as they had anticipated and many of them lingered unsigned into the early months of 2024 and/or signed for deals well below projections. It seems fair to expect that similar narratives could emerge in the coming winter.
Per González, a company source says that Diamond is still hoping to sign new deals with the 11 clubs being cut out today. However, that would presumably involve reduce fee payments, such as those received by the Guardians, Twins and Rangers this year. As mentioned up top, the Marlins and Angels seem to expect to continue their relationship with Diamond/Bally in 2025, though negotiating new deals may take some time.
In the long-term picture, MLB might be happy to be further cutting ties with Diamond. They have continually expressed skepticism about the company’s plans to stay afloat. Diamond has tried various methods of refinancing, including signing a streaming deal with Amazon, but the league hasn’t seemed convinced that any of the company’s plans would lead to long-term stability.
As mentioned, the league has already started selling some games to fans in direct-to-customer fashion. Commissioner Rob Manfred has aspirations of marketing a digital streaming package consisting of several MLB teams, which fans could watch without blackout restrictions. MLB.TV already exists and allows fans to watch most games, but the RSN deals lead to certain teams being blacked out in the areas covered by those deals.
Having less commitment with Diamond going forward will increase the viability of that streaming plan over the years to come. However, as mentioned, less TV revenue figures to have a sizeable impact on the short-term economics of the game. This will lead to ripple effects throughout the upcoming offseason and will likely be worrisome for certain players hitting the open market in the coming weeks. New deals could be negotiated between now and the 2025 season, which could put some money back on the table, though likely less than in previous years.
There is also the matter of the fan experience, as there were times in 2024 where the Braves were not available on TV to some customers during a dispute between Bally’s and Comcast. For fans of these 11 clubs today, they will have to keep an eye on the proceedings to determine if their favorite club will still be accessed in the ways they are accustomed to or if they will have to switch to some new broadcast model.
Good riddance. What a mess Diamond made
What does it say about MLB and the owners, that a fly by night group of shysters was able to finagle their way in this deep??
Selling out to apple tv is any different? it’s going to get quite comical to me pretty soon when a TON of fans on this site just cannot comprehend how salaries can come down and STILL blame it on “greedy” corporate interests.
The minds of today, Instructed from a young age in economics was indeed poorly done in it’s entirety and left a pretty much lost generation plus.
Everybody’s greedy.
John Silver: It’s rich that you are critiquing other people’s thinking when you write sentences as poorly-constructed as that last sentence. (It’s not so much that you made “mistakes” like “it’s entirely” instead of “its entirety”; it’s just a badly-written, difficult-to-follow sentence.)
You’re right that someone in education has failed, but the failure appears not to have been in the education of the “young minds” you are so consistently and needlessly condescending toward.
Toward is not a word you are supposed to use at the end of a sentence.
Zing!
“The minds of today, Instructed from a young age in economics was indeed poorly done in it’s entirety and left a pretty much lost generation plus.”
johnsilver;
Most of their their parents and even grandparents didn’t understand basic economics.
Henny Youngman’s’ line fits for most Americans:
“How can I be overdrawn? I still have blank checks left!”
–
I responded to your comment on the broadcasters in the Brewers article.
I don’t have a TV hooked up. Everything I watch
is streaming. Am a computer person. Unhooked
my TV sometime in the early 90’s. Had to go over
to my girlfriends house to follow the developments
of 9/11.
langeek.co/en/grammar/course/1018/towards
If used as an adjective, it can be used grammatically correctly at the end of a sentence.
…but it wasn’t.
Samuel
Most of their their parents and even grandparents didn’t understand basic economics.
===========================
This is a huge issue.. This was a huge component of the 2008 mortgage meltdown. A lot of folks were just winging it. They couldn’t calculate the reset mortgage rates.
The number of people who thought they were investment bankers in the Nasdaq meltdown, then became day traders, then flipped houses because they saw some fabricated TV show.
@johnsilver. I have not heard a dumber take on this situation than that. You are a complete moron.
It doesn’t help matters when you have a major party candidate for president saying his tarrifs on imported goods will lower prices for everyone. Yikes.
Please show source for this
Superbox
Just look at all of the labor strikes going on now because of greed. It’s never enough. More. More. More.
@SOB..Was waiting for the moronic political comment of the day….you win a chicken dinner
Oh, okay. What are his tariffs supposed to do then?
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/09/16/trans…
The conservative treehouse? Nobody reading that joke.
Conservative tree house sounds like something from Pee Wees playhouse.
Using “toward” at the end of a sentence is perfectly acceptable. Especially in casual writing.
Thats one of those old “rules” that we have moved beyond. Like the stupid double space after period that has been eliminated.
No not folks like you with low comprehension levels.
In my amateur perspective, Diamond was trying to buy its way into a growing industry. Companies do this all the time. Ofttimes, the difference between success and failure is having enough cash to sustain the losses.
It’s like a version of AI. Most companies will lose money, and a few will succeed spectacularly.
@rondon
Fly by night? Hardly! This is the Sinclair Broadcasting Company. They purchased the Fox Sports Network from Disney to facilitate the Disney/Fox merger and paid $10 Billion. Like most large companies, Sinclair has many subsidiaries, just as Fox Sports was a subsidiary of Fox. Unfortunately, cable cutting occurred more rapidly than expected, dropping revenues, and putting them in Bankruptcy.
The Cubs Marquee network is part of Sinclair. So, will this also filter down to them?
Sinclair are themselves shysters
Why anyone would defend Sinclair Broadcasting Company is beyond me? SBC does more harm in this country than help.
^^^^^THIS GUY GETS IT^^^^
I think the criticism I have is this: how did MLB and/or the Clubs not see this coming? How did they think it could continue? And, what’s going to happen with the other Clubs that aren’t in NYC, LA, or Chicago?
If Diamond couldn’t make this go as they were, how will the other regional networks do it? Outside of the “Big 3” cities, the downturn in cable system carriage fees has to be a problem for the other RSNs.
Those shysters are in bankruptcy court, where a judge will decide what they get to do or not do. This is not close to being decided. As creditors, those teams and MLB have a huge say in whether or not they accept this BS. Right now MLB is arguing against DSG being allowed to do this in the bankruptcy hearing.
They got in trouble because Sinclair sold the broadcast rights to a subsidiary at an inflated price to get them off their books when they spun off that subsidiary after buying them for more than market value in the first place.
DIRECTV just won in their negotiations against Disney, who owns ABC and ESPN, so there will be DIRECTV packages soon that ESPN is NOT part of, where you can purchase a package by your interest, not the entire Disney catalog. You can blame that BS on the fact that there are only 5 corporations that control all of the video content we see in the US. We may not have ala carte TV options yet, but something close is coming and at a lower price point than cable and satellite providers have had to charge because of Disney, Discovery, et al.
MLB did see this coming. In the 2022/2023 winter meetings Manfred was almost giddy, smiling ear to ear, when discussing the possibility that DSG and other RSN’s would go bankrupt or simply drop the contracts with individual teams. MLB has wanted this to happen for a very long time.
I am shocked they are a subsidiary of Sinclair – 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that “stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market”.[4][5] The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported “fake news” in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC
Smacky;
?
Golly. Of course you’re shocked. I see where you’re coming from.
CNN and NBC are having major financial troubles….and
have been for years.
Your point?
A one day Joe Rogan podcast draws more viewers than ABC, NBC, CBS, and all cable news networks combined draw in a week.
Think maybe people are changing their viewing habits?
P.S. MLB has high-powered advisors. They’re positioning themselves perfectly. Ultimately all MLB games will be streamed by MLB. And the revenues will be split evenly between all franchises.
Not so fast. You will have to pry the local sports networks from the lucrative northeast teams’ cold dead hands.
920falcon;
Takes some time, but they will.
The big argument:
If team A plays in a large market and team B in a small one, why is Team A getting multiple times the revenue from the broadcast, when 2 teams are being broadcast.
–
I understand one of your responses may will be that more fans in Team A’s marketing will be watching the game.
But that’s assuming the game will only be shown in those 2 cities. If the game will be shown to all subscribers of the streaming service available not only throughout America, but to baseball fans around the world connecting through the Internet, then there are multiple reasons those fans are tuned in, and it isn’t necessarily because one team plays in a large American market.
Think big. Think global. MLB is…as are the NFL and NBA….and surely that went into the Dodgers giving Ohtani so much money
over multiple years.
Joe Rogan isn’t news. He’s a former television game show ,where people ate bugs, host. If you treat it as news you are comically misinformed.
Smacky;
Neither are NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News or PBS. They’re political operatives. If you treat them as news
you are comically misinformed.
Embrace stupidity Samuel, it fits you well.
And the Dodgers.
LOL Smacky;
You lefties are a crack-up.
Always accuse others of doing what you’re doing.
Anyone that doesn’t march in totalitarian step with you is to be made fun of, ridiculed, and dismissed.
Been that way throughout history.
That’s not happening with the Yankees owning YES, Rogers owning the Blue Jays, etc.
@samuel
Too bad ignorance isn’t painful!
MLB wanted to take over broadcast rights to all teams, but could never figure out how to do that with Dodgers, Yankees and Phillies.
Then it was going to just control the rest and Amazon stepped in
No, the reason they’re going bankrupt is that they paid 10.6 Billion and financed 8 Billion . There was no way to pay that debt off. Very similar to the way that Private Equity firms buy companies and bankrupt them on purpose . Look at past deals for Toys R Us and Red Lobster and many others . Capitalism at it’s best .
@rondon
See Jeffrey Loria.
tigers182;
Maybe so.
But the good news is that according to MLBTR only the Minnesota Twins were affected enough by the “mess” to have to cut back on payroll. So…..
What’s the problem?
Absolutely, good riddance. Hopefully they take John Sadak with them.
Hannah White too?
What’s the status of Vanna White?
Alive.
You say that, but there goes 25% of the Cardinals revenue. They’re already lagging well behind a lot of teams in revenue. Losing $~80M a year isn’t going to help.
bel, the Cardinals contract with DSG is for $66 million, not $80 million.
Neither the Padres nor the Diamondbacks lost 25% of their TV revenue in 2023. The Padres lost 16% and the Diamondbacks zero %. Neither earned less in 2024 than they would have with DSG.
Not sure where you come up with that garbage.
Where did you get your numbers because they don’t match Forbes, Statista, or any of the contemporary reports when the deal was signed.
The Cardinals TV deal was a shade over $1B over 15 years.plus a 30% stake in Fox Sports. It started at a $50M payment and escalated over the term of the deal to cap out in what was supposed to be the last year in 2032 at $86M. Last year’s payout was $74M. This year’s was estimated at $78M before Bally dropped them.
That’s like saying Sonny Gray made $25M (the AAV of his deal) this season instead of the $10M he was actually paid.
The Padres deal with Bally/DSG was ~$60M AAV and had a similar escalator as the Cardinals. They got $25M from MLB’s streaming plan. How is that 16%? Does math work differently where you are?
Statista. LMFAO. Get a clue. They said the Padres were getting $80 million and they were due $51 million in 2023 and 2024.
The bankruptcy proceedings will tell you EXACTLY how much each team was due from DSG and the Cardinals were due $66 million in 2024 and 2025. 2032 is the last year of that deal. This stuff is not hard.
DSG hasn’t dropped them yet. They WANT to drop them. The judge in the bankruptcy hasn’t ruled if he will allow them to yet.
The Padres lost $8.5 million from the April payment DSG defaulted on and that is 16% of $51 million. That is ALL the TV revenue they lost or MLB would have made more payments to them. You truly are short bus material.
Have mercy!
Good. Now these clubs can launch their own streaming platforms or sign deals with more financially viable companies.
jabronie– That, my belief is the issue. Some (like a lot) of teams just don’t have much of a fan base, which can allow them to charge enough to have a platform of their own. I’m no media exec, but how many support personel, cameramen, not to mention just the equipment itself?
Some teams have massive fan bases spread out all over the country.. LAD, NYY, Cubbies, Red Sox, SFG, Atlanta and maybe even the NYM somewhat, but everyone else? it’s mostly regional, which is why and how some teams have had their own networks (succesfully) for decades and Diamond/bally folded at the 1st hint at trouble.
I’ll give you an example of a small, regional sports network.. Seattle and Root.. Every team has now left it from the Seattle market, leaving the mariners as the sole sports team, will it still be around come ’25 season? who knows. Not a huge market team, which had banked previously on the MISL and i believe it was nhl team.. don’t hammer me on that, but think it was those 2 which just left it.. 1 was the kraken, but not positive on soccer.. Anyway.. mid-small market are at major disadvantage and i don’t see the major market powerhouses relinquishing their cash cows in order to bale out the Tampa bays of the league.
Yeah. I was saying in another comment that the model outside of the “Big 3” cities has to be on the edge as well.
The problem MLB has is that MLB is really more of an association. The individual Clubs maintain a high amount of autonomy. The biggest mistake was not pooling all local broadcast revenue, but the owners wouldn’t do it without a salary cap. Now the owners are in a bind.
Be the end of cable. Good riddance but think of all the parasites that piggyback off the money we spend only to watch our team. Discovery/Viacom financial implosion incoming.
It won’t be individual clubs driving the streaming platform — this is where MLB comes in. If the braintrust of MLB is smart (and I’m not sure that they are) they will pull the broadcasting of these teams together under a single platform similar to the NFL Sunday Ticket. Empower the individual teams to choose their play-by-play people and color analysts but MLB provides the infrastructure for all game broadcasts creating a more uniform presentation and lowering the behind-the-scenes costs as they prepare the programming for the majority of teams simultaneously. Create two tiers of packaging where you can either subscribe to an individual team’s schedule of games (with no blackouts) or the overall MLB package that already exists.
Replay would be more equal among stadiums that way.
It was only a matter of time until the millions upon millions of cord cutters disrupted the outdated Comcast/Xfinity communications and distribution business model.
Is everyone else blacked out from watching the games today and yesterday on mlb.tv or just me?
“Everyone else blacked out..or just me”…I’ve been using MlB.TV for over 10 yrs now and if I remember correctly, you’ve never been able to watch the MLB playoffs on MLB.TV.
I watched yesterday’s games on ESPN. ESPN pays a lot for their exclusive rights to certain MLB playoff games.
mlb fan;
Yes.
But I listen to the radio broadcast of my choice the day of the game, and 2 hours after the game ends I can replay the video with my choice of audio.
Sort of like 30 years ago when I – and others I knew – set VCR’s on timers to tape the games when we were at work. Then played them back when we got home. But choice of
the audio is better.
elchappo- espn/abc
Unless you’re a paying TV subscriber of a partner Cable, Satellite, or Live TV streaming service, you could never watch on MLB.TV.
The networks (ESPN, Fox) have exclusive rights to the broadcasts in the postseason.
refereemn77
No.
They have exclusive rights to broadcast the game LIVE.
I’m watching a broadcast of a past game right now.
You guys it’s the internet, you can stream any live event you want for free.
And their trophy was….what exactly?
It’s just a matter of time, that if you want to watch any MLB game, you will have to pay for a streaming service. More revenue for the billionaire owners and millionaire players.
I’d more than willing to pay extra for a service with all the games and no blackouts.
I don’t miss a Padres game unless its a nationally televised game. Pay 19.95/mo to get all the games with no blackouts. Padres.tv
That will eventually roll out to all the teams that NBC/Comcast and DSG are dropping.
Yep, and the Padres got $25M from MLB for their streaming content rather than the $80M they got from Bally/Diamond. Any idea why Soto is a Yankee instead of hitting in the middle of the Padres’ order?
Eh, Soto would be great, but King has been a godsend. They were also able to flip Thorpe for Cease. As good as Soto is, they have enough good hitters in the middle of their order, and are better off with two top-15 starting pitchers instead.
bel, the Padres contract with DSG was for $51 million in 2023, not $80 million.
The Padres got $6.8 million from MLB in 2023. That is 80% of the one DSG payment that was defaulted on.
The Padres own their broadcast rights and sold 300,000 of the Padres.tv packages last season. That was not a hand out from MLB. This season they expanded the area that could buy them to all of the areas the Padres own TV rights in, including Hawaii, and sold 400,000.
Last season the Padres were on every channel they were on in 2022 and then added one and picked up an additional 1.2 million households when DSG defaulted in 2023 because they were able to negotiate deals with all the carriers directly. Are you stupid enough to think that they gave those away for free? Seriously?
The Padres needed pitching. The trade of Soto resulted in King, Thorpe who was traded for Cease, Vasquez, and Brito. 83 starts with a 3.52 ERA and 26 relief appearances with a 4.12 ERA.
In 2023 the Padres were 10th in MLB on offense with Soto. 20th in BA, 13th in OPS, 13th in runs scored, and 10th in both OPS+ and wRC+. Care to guess where they ranked in 2024 without Soto? I will give you a hint. They were better across the board.
Anything else you would like to get educated about?
Don’t forget about the GOAT, starting catcher Kyle Higashioka
300,000×19.99×4 (months in a season) is $24M.Even at 400,000 packages that’s $32M. The most lucrative rights shares with networks (and those days are long gone) were in the range of $9 a TV so that’s another $10,8M (very generously since it’s likely half that in the current market) which gives the Padres ~$42M in TV revenue, at the very top end estimate. Is 18M 16% of 60? Nope. That’s a 30% reduction in funding and probably closer to 40% when using realistic.
Bel,
The facts are clear and laid out in the bankruptcy proceedings. The Padres received from MLB 80% of the one payment that DSG defaulted on in April 2023. That $8.5 million is ALL they lost in TV revenue in 2023. They received no payments in 2024 and lost no TV revenue in 2024.
They have 2.2 million TV households served by the carriers they are on today. At your claim of $9 per TV, that is $19.8 million.
You can keep droning on and you will STILL be wrong.
It’s actually been less revenue with the collapse of diamond.
Maybe it has been less revenue for MLB, but their broadcast partner literally went broke trying to pay them. So what does that tell us?
The answer for all major sports leagues is their own streaming service, why anyone debates this is beyond me.
Stick to the service line you know. If a sports league knows sports, stick with that. You can have a streaming service do all the technical and management stuff and just collect the service fee of carrying your sport. That’s straight profit without the added headache. Create out clauses as necessary.
Except the NFL. They are so popular that anything works for them.
The sports leagues would rather be overpaid for the rights, than only make what ad revenue and subscriptions can generate.
Cheaper than being forced to subscribe to an entire cable bundle just to watch baseball.
I agree. I would be willing to pay for a streaming service. I belong to 2 Cardinal fan groups on Facebook and most of the members only have cable to watch the games. So now that Bally won’t be broadcasting them they will be dropping their cable.
But who does that? The reason some people stick with cable is because they like other offerings and don’t want to have to find 4 or 5 different services to get what they want. And after you pay for all that, you really aren’t saving any money anyway.
Bingo. This streaming nonsense is out of control.
1) Many rural Americans still have crappy internet plans because of net nuetrality (have to build out the backbone for streaming without being allowed to force the streaming companies to pay usage fees). For most rural people, the only weay to get internet fast enough to stream reliably before Starlink was through phone providers with some type of terrestrial wireless. For example , Verizon sold Mi-Fi’s for $200 per unit, then roughly $50 per month to get a whopping 25gb before throttling. Before Starlink, I had to rock 3 of those per month, plus the 30GB I got with my mobile hotspot on my phone just to have enough data to work, much less ‘enjoy’. Starlink has helped that for many, and the rural internet bill the Dems finally allowed to pass once they had a sitting president has also made it better with fiber through electric co-ops, but it’s taken forever.
2) When you really look at streaming options that match what cable/satelleite have provided it is nearly as expensive as it previously was, plus you still have to fund your internet.
3) Quality of streaming generally sucks even with 2Gb downstream (which I have). Choppy and annoying moments happen almost every game. Didn’t happen on Cable/Sat. That plus finding things is just nowhere near as quick and easy, especially given so many packages have horrible menu’s.
4) The only real pro might be that once you get on true streaming you coupld possibly get to stream ‘in-market’ teams as they will finally be able to contractually end this ‘local market’ nonsense.
5) Since the advent of streaming many channels that used to source some semi-premium content have now hidden it behind a-la-carte ‘us only’ packages. If you want to get two or three of them that will run you $30-$60 dollars depending on which ones, which will put you over cable prices if you use enough basic channels to still go with a streaming package. Granted, some of the premium content behind these a-la-carte services might not have existed or might be significantly better now that these providers can get money directly to support the costs. I don’t think that is too debatable, so it’s definitely a pro to that model.
6) Streaming model won’t be nearly as lucrative, so costs will go up somewhere. Either that or salaries must come down, which will cause massive amounts of whine from the MLBPA and MLB both.
Streaming is generally not cheaper for a typical family. People just ‘think’ it is. For those select few who only handpick a few a-la-carte packages, especially on a seasonal basis, then yeah, you might save a bit. But if most of you streaming really factor in all the costs, you will be shocked. Most households will go with a standard package for anywhere from $80-$160 per month, then add a few premium packages and maybe a streamed local sports team, and voila, you are in the $130-210 range per month, without even factoring in internet costs (though most will have it anyway, you will now be forced to have it).
Just my opinions of course, but I get so tired of people trying to make streaming out to be the greatest thing in the world with no cons.
Have you tried HughesNet or ViaSat? We are currently building a building in a very rural area of Sierra county that literally has no cellular service and we have two satellite accounts out there to satisfy all our needs for the 24 employees, about 50 internet connected devices, and 20 internet connected construction vehicles and equipment that are on site.
UgaSteve- Large swaths of rural US still have no reliable, even non costly internet access, even with a certain amount of politicians promising it several years ago and sending it for FREE to distant 3rd worl dump countries, yet continually ignoring it in this country and know this issue exists for a fact still in this country, several relatives of mine like to live far away from major cities, have NOTHING available to them, exc for overpriced Starlink as was mentioned and 1 other equally high priced option. US citizens, like on many other things have been forgotten and given empty promises and freebies sent to 3rd world garbage heeps instead for free press hype, which we all read daily as a “loook at what we are doing” and ignoring issues here at home.
Another outright disgrace nothing being done about and will leave out the name of the ex liar in chief who mad the boast of a promise several years ago to make speedy internet available to everyone in the US.. It should be easy to find if anyone wants to know..
If you can’t get cell service you don’t have a great option.
But if you have 4g that’s all you need. 5 to 10 mb you can watch free stream. Mlbtv will work on 2 to 3 mb.
The opening weekend is usually free. You pay for 1 month April. Then on mother’s day they sell the season for half off.
@Garywally57: I would be more than happy to pay for my team a la carte or even with a non-blackout general subscription to MLB.TV. MLB seems to make it as hard as possible to watch in-market games. Until it’s easier, the high seas are your friend. Finding a stream for any game of any sport has never been easier.
Amazon Firestick Jailbreaking…period.
Not me !!! I grew up listening to the ball game on radio. I have no problem doing that again.
True. Even though I subscribe to the Marquee Network for Cubs content, Pat & Ron on the radio is the way to go.
It won’t be though. They can’t make even close to the same revenue via a streaming model.
Its just a matter of time before ALL games are carried directly by MLB on their streaming service except those they have sold to national broadcasters like ESPN or ABC or TBS/TNT. Most people don’t realize that MLB was the originator of streaming service for live games.
Paying $20/mo for 6 months beats $100/mo plus a connection fee every time I turn it off.
Live streaming will save you $30 for now but it goes up $1-2 like every two months.
My Padres.tv has not gone up in price.
Garywally57
More revenue for the billionaire owners and millionaire players.
======================
And? Folks pay me decent coin for my services, so I have no philosophical objection to others charging me for their services.
You guys, it’s the internet, you can stream any live sporting event you want for free.
Only if you are willing to break the law. Most people aren’t.
I would think the Cardinals could start their own network. Seems like they have the fanbase to pull it off.
They should just buy a station like Chanel 11 and be done with all of the nonsense.
And yet they get revenue sharing money. What an outrage!
Every team receives revenue sharing of about $200M each season. What an outrage.
Their fanbase isn’t bigger than the Cubs and yet Marquee isn’t doing that well.
Don’t let the door hit you in the a## on the way out. What’s next, Cardinals?
If done right, this is a good thing.
Of course it’s MLB… so the odds of them getting right aren’t so high.
Ot will be impossible to “do right“ because of how MLB is structured. MLB doesn’t centrally control the broadcast or streaming rights. The individual Clubs do.
A good thing was forcing non sports fans to pay for sports they don’t watch. Good times are over.
When will Fubo figure out that the Diamond/Bally regional sports channels are no longer worth the 15 bucks per month they charge? They already lost me as a customer because of this.
I always enjoyed listening to the ball game on the radio anyway.
old-school :3
@FemboySportsFan
I find that you can use your imagination more, especially with good radio broadcasters.
@Old York that’s problem. Not enough good radio announcers. I’m one of the Yankees fans not sorry to see Sterling retire. No more hearing “That ball is high, it is far, it is… caught by the second baseman.”
Hearing my broadcaster (Eric Nadel) feels much more iconic than the Bally broadcasters.
@OldYork
Agreed! so much more fun.
@Joe says…
Hawk Harrelson just asked me to hold his beer?
Hawk and Duane Kuiper are good. Vin, Jack Buck, Russ Hodges, Red Barber, Harry Caray, and Ernie Harwell were better.
I just think radio feels more baseball-like than television and corporization.
@Clofreesz
Yeah, I though Ernie Harwell had a great voice for presenting and creating the image that you’re actually there watching the game.
Torres does have range though
Yeah but the main reason why is because it’s radio. In other words, no video so they are forced to create the scenery.
No, Hawk only lets Yaz hold his beer.
femboy:
why use the :3 in the SERIOUS SOCIAL SETTING known as the mlbtraderumors comment section
@numberoneslayerfan
idk :3
I concur. MLB.com’s At Bat app is the best bargain around. You can listen to any team’s radio feed from spring training through the postseason with archived broadcasts for $30 a year.
I love listening to a game on the radio, but watching it live is best, following by the local TV crew.
The national TV crew is way worse though and Id rather listen to radio than that.
The problem with national announcers is they don’t know the small details about the teams that make the team specific broadcasters so much better. It’s not their fault, it’s just too much to keep up with.
MLB will create their own streaming service for all the teams and you’ll be able to watch your favorite team whenever you want, wherever you are in the world.* Starting at 29.99 a month for basic or 49.99 for commercial free.
*blackout restrictions apply.
They literally already have this
Hopefully, MLB.tv won’t have blackouts now….
The individual Clubs control the broadcast and streaming rights. MLB cannot force them into MLB.TV. MLB is largely an association and the Clubs maintain a large amount of autonomy.
Do they? I have MLB.com, but I cannot get NYY home games. Fortunately, I am a RS fan, so it isn’t much of a loss.
The only blackout restrictions will soon be on nationally televised games and the handful of networks owned 100% by their team.
None of those teams should negotiate new deals with Diamond. What guarantee do they have any new deal will be honored?
“Will be honored”…Any business entity can file bankruptcy and essentially break existing contracts.
Of course they can. My point was they’ve already done it once so why sign again with them.
no one has signed with them. this is DSG trying to unilaterally impose this, which they can’t. The judge in the bankruptcy hearing will decide what actions are taken. At this point no MLB teams will be carried by DSG in 2025.
Nobody will miss them. Sorry, Atlanta.
I don’t think anybody in Atlanta cares who’s in charge as long as the games are being broadcast
For those who don’t understand how bankruptcy works, companies in bankruptcy have the option of accepting or rejecting contracts in whole. They reject contracts that are bad deals for the bankrupt company, which means that the 11 teams that are losing their deal with Diamond were getting paid more money under their deal than was justified. All 11 of these teams will make less money in 2025, and maybe for several years beyond 2025, for broadcasting/streaming their games. If you’re a fan of any of these teams (and I’m a Rays fan), expect cost cutting as a result of this decision, even if the teams sign new deals with Diamond Sports or create their own streaming service. This is also bad news for the players because 1/3 of the league’s teams will now be cutting spending, making this year’s free agency a huge buyer’s market for everyone who isn’t one of the 5-10 top players in free agency this year..
Grim prognosis, but I can’t say you’re wrong.
The overlap between “victims” and 2025 committed payrolls is very interesting. Counting Atlanta as stuck with a contract that Diamond likes, you have the following:
ATL 5th largest
TEX 9th
STL 13th
LAA 14th
KC 15
SEA 16
MIN 17
MIL 20
CIN 21
CLE 24
TB 27
MIA 28
Some would not be in the FA market anyway, but some may be pressured into trades or non tenders.
But sitting in the cat birds seat is a team with it’s own network and rights to broadcast ANOTHER TEAM (plus growing local TV rating and the second lowest payroll commitments)–the Baltimore Orioles.
The Braves have enough of a national fan base who still recall the TBS era that Diamond seems to think it can make money from those games. All the other teams are basically regional markets. Even the Cardinals. Wow.
Largest what? There is no way that the Milwaukee, Cleveland, Seattle, KC, Cincy TV markets are larger than Tampa Bay.
Cleaver, they aren’t. Tampa is 12th and Seattle 13th. The rest of those aren’t close. Cleveland at 19th is about 50% of the TV households of Tampa, KC is next at 34th, Cincinnati 37th, and Milwaukee 38th and they all have less than 40% of the TV households that Tampa has.
Actually, that is not how chapter 11 reorganization works.
All 11 of these teams are CREDITORS and can choose not to accept any terms that the filing corporation, DSG in this case, propose in court.
The Padres and Diamondbacks made MORE money when DSG dropped them and they dropped them BEFORE they filed bankruptcy. Once they filed bankruptcy it was no longer up to DSG and that is why they dropped those teams before they filed, both the Padres and Diamondbacks were seen on more stations and had a larger number of TV households AFTER being dropped by DSG, plus they each sold around 300k single team MLB.TV packages at 19.95 per month. I will let you do the math on that.
The final decision on whether DSG will be solvent when all this is done will be decided by the judge. That hasn’t happened as of yet. You CAN educate yourself on the case by reading the entire docket. Here is the link – cases.ra.kroll.com/DSG/Home-DocketInfo
The Disclosure Statement Hearing is scheduled for Monday October 7, 2024 at 1:00 p.m Central and since MLB is disputing this latest filing by DSG, its doubtful Judge Lopez will approve anything you read in this article.
Pads Fans – This is a baseball forum, not a legal forum. My post was meant to convey one simple message, and that was the contracts being rejected were unprofitable or otherwise not worth continuing into the future and therefore the teams whose contracts were rejected were going to struggle to replace that revenue next year. So while the teams are CREDITORS (not sure why you felt the need to capitalize that term), they are subject to one basic rule of bankruptcy – that the bankrupt party can largely choose to accept or reject a contract in its SOLE discretion (see what I did there) if it does not propose any change to the terms of the agreement. Yes, the Court has final approval, but that’s mostly a technicality when it comes to accepting/rejecting contracts without changes.
As for everything else in your response, I’m not going to pretend to know the specifics of the Padres’ situation; however, the article you are commenting to reports that (1) DSG filed for bankruptcy BEFORE rejecting the Padres agreement, and (2) the Padres were reimbursed by MLB for 80% of the fees they were to have received by DSG (which MLB did to keep the Padres afloat, not as a bonus on top of them increasing revenue).
Again, I don’t care about the legal situation of DSG in the slightest. I care about the Rays, and they will most certainly be in a worse position financially next year as a result of this action.
MP, you are wrong about that. The entity filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has forfeited its rights to make business decisions like that. In large cases like this, a court appointed trustee makes most significant day-to-day decisions and anything that would change the companies revenue, assets, or expenditures must be presented to the court for the judge to make a ruling on.
For every major move the debtor must submit a plan to the court which the creditors can then vote on, The court will ok the plan if it meets certain legal requirements and gets the required votes from the creditors.
The creditors hold most of the power in these cases because they can reject the reorganization plan. It means they may force the company to close and get less of the money owed, but they still have that power.
Diamond Sports made an $8.5 million payment to the Padres on March 8th 2023 and served notice that they would no longer honor their contract with the Padres unless they negotiated a new contract.
They filed for bankruptcy on March 14th. The Padres had allowed them to continue to carry the games until they went into default. They went into default on May 14th and stopped broadcasting games on May 30th. MLB took over the broadcasting duties one day later. and the Padres continued to be carried on all the same station as they had prior to the Diamond Sports default, It was quite obvious that MLB and the Padres had foreseen this outcome and prepared for it by having both the equipment in place and the contracts negotiated with the carriers like Spectrum, Cox, DIRECTV, FUBO, and others.
The judge in the bankruptcy case eventually forced Diamond Sports to pay the Padres 50% of the $51 million they would have been paid for 2023.
According to filings in the bankruptcy case, the Padres were paid $6.8 million by MLB to cover 80% of the $8..5 million in revenue the Padres lost.
It is very simple to look up all the facts regarding the case, because they are all public record.
I am hoping beyond hope that Arte Moreno is working with MLB now and has been as proactive as the the Padres ownership was so that the outcome for the Angels is as good as it was for the Padres. The Angels are in a huge market, they have 3 million fans that show up year in and year out, except in 2024, and they could certainly do better than the Padres and Diamondbacks did in negotiating to be on TV in LA, OC, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties as well as selling a huge number of the single-team MLB.tv packages that people living in SD and Phoenix metro areas can buy.
As I said earlier, I don’t care about the Padres situation, My original post didn’t comment on the Padres situation, and my response to Pads Fan made it clear I was just re-stating facts from the very article we are all commenting on. I guess the article is wrong. Right or wrong though, I don’t care about the Padres situation and I’m not going to read through the bankruptcy filings.
I commend your knowledge of the law; however, you’re trying to pick apart my dumbed down version of the law with your own, and I really don’t think anyone cares that (1) DSG is a Debtor in Possession and the legal significance of that, (2) there are various classes of creditors and the difference between those with impaired claims vs. those with unimpaired claims (ie: someone having a contract that is accepted in whole with no modifications), (3) the creditors in a bankruptcy case are not working together collectively as you’re suggesting; they are a pack of wolves fighting over the scraps of an insolvent company, with the vast majority of those creditors being unsecured creditors who get just a couple pennies on the dollar for their claims, or (4) it is extremely unlikely that DGS’s proceeding will be turned into a Chap. 7 liquidation and is not worth commenting on.
So again, my original post was merely intended to say that most of the teams in question that have their contracts terminated will find it hard to replace the money that was owed. I guess the Padres did pretty well last year (with MLB’s assistance), but that is probably a one off that won’t apply to the now 11 teams facing the loss of their broadcasting deal, particularly with MLB saying they were completely blindsided by the rejection of these contracts.
MP, you apparently care greatly because you keep commenting about it. The Padres didn’t find it hard to replace that money and neither will any other team in MLB. They may have a slightly lower revenue for a short time, but as the Padres and Diamondbacks have shown, the two teams that lost their contracts first, that revenue is quickly recouped.
OILF, that is about as good of an explanation of the entire DSG situation that I have seen. Great job.
My response was limited to the bankruptcy process overall, not the Padres situation, and I think you will find that the 11 teams will find it hard to replace the money they are losing from DSG. MLB and those 11 teams do not appear to have expected (or are prepared to deal with) DSG’s rejection of these contracts. Maybe they replace 50% of the lost revenue and maybe they replace 80% next year, but DSG rejected these contracts for a reason (and that reason is usually because they were unprofitable). Even the responses you and OILF have posted show large drops in revenue to the teams following DSG’s rejection. Anyway, I’ve said all I have to say on this. We will know soon enough who is right.
MLB agreed to provide 80% of lost TV revenue for any team that was affected by the RSN issues.
MLB paid the Padres a total of $6.8 million. That is 80% of ONE Diamond Sports monthly payment. That means the Padres lost only $8.5 million in TV revenue for the season.
That also means the Padres replaced $34 million of the lost revenue by sources other than the $6.8 million payment from MLB.
In 2024 they are still seen in 1.2 million more TV households than under Diamond Sports, per Sports Business Journal they sold an estimated 410k of the single-team, local only MLB.tv packages that they now call Padres.tv at $19.99 per month to $99.99 per season, and MLB paid them nothing. That indicates that they didn’t lose any TV revenue in 2024.
The Diamondbacks are seen on all the same channels as they were with Diamond Sports, they sold 350k of the single-team, local only MLB.tv packages that they call dbacks.tv, and according to the bankruptcy filings they were paid nothing by MLB last season or this season. That would indicate that they didn’t lose any TV revenue in either season.
The Padres received a total of $6.8 million from MLB in 2023, meaning that last season they lost a total of $8.5 million in revenue. 16% of their total. Not 50%. Not even 20%.
They had some uncertainty because they didn’t know how well that the Padres.tv packages would sell. But they didn’t lose close to what you are claiming other teams will.
In 2024 the Padres received $0.00 from MLB, meaning they lost no TV revenue compared to the $51 million they would have received from DSG.
The Diamondbacks received no payments from MLB in 2023, so that means they didn’t lose any TV revenue. Ken Kendrick talked about that in an interview with the Arizona Republic in February of this year. He also talked about how the uncertainty of not having that guaranteed money from an RSN could impact spending, that they were still looking for a TV partner, then they went with MLB and went out and increased spending on payroll.
Teams that we are talking about now will not lose their TV deal during the season. They have 6 months until the start of the season to determine how they would like to proceed. There is no reason for them to lose any revenue if they act quickly, allow MLB to begin negotiations with the carriers they are on now, and begin selling the single team MLB.tv packages.
DSG is unprofitable because of DEBT. They took on more debt than they had annual revenue by a factor of 6. They can’t make their DEBT payments. That is why they are in reorganization BANKRUPTCY right now. That is the entire point of a chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy.
300,000x20x4 is $24M. The Padres last payout from DSG was $51M. I’m not sure where you learned math but here 51 is more than 24.
belk, a little remedial math is in your future.
The Padres got $8.5 million from Diamond Sports in March and Diamond Sports defaulted on the April payment.
They had $24 million in revenue from the MLB.tv single-team, local only streaming contracts.
The Padres had contracts with all of the same channels that Diamond Sports was seen on and added 1 new station and 1.2 million TV households. Obviously, they got compensated for that. They didn’t give away their broadcast rights for free.
MLB agreed to pay all teams affected by Diamond Sports and other RSN defaults 80% of lost revenue, The Padres received $6.8 million from MLB. That means they only lost $8.5 million in revenue during the season or 1 monthly payment from Diamond Sports.
This is really easy stuff.
Hopefully the Angels get something quickly, before the offseason begins. So the payroll will be increased for next season
They would probably just give Rendon a contract extension.
Robby the robot allowed this to go on too long which affected these teams operations last season.
To hope MLB actually comes up with a solution that is both good for fans and the income disparity for these teams is probably too much to ask.
The ‘robot’ is controlled by team owners and the small markets control MLB by majority rule.
Have you bought ocean front property in Arizona lately?
This is good. MLB will take over broadcasting, via streaming. We’ll pay by the month and it will be fine. The era of free entertainment is gradually dying, and that’s generally a good thing.
No, they won’t. They’ll keep doing what they do and sell some game content to the highest bidder like they do with Amazon, Apple, Roku, etc. even though MLB.tv subscribers pay for a “full” season. I expect further fragmentation of games bc of their greed. MLB set game attendance records this season so local TV blackouts are working as intended.
I don’t think anyone makes a one-or-the-other decision between going to the game and watching it on TV. They’re completely different entertainment options and different audiences. TV watchers are a small group of intense fans who care deeply who wins games. In-person fans are experience-seekers who care very little what the score is.
I dunno. You’ll need to ask season ticket holders whether local blackouts influence which package they decide to buy.
I think teams who regularly fill their ballpark are missing out on money by blacking out home games.
Valid. There’s no public data on any of this stuff.
My expectation is that these will all be short-term deals to ensure some cash flow, while allowing for the flexibility to eventually consolidate all broadcasting.
Not every fan who can’t get the game on cable will switch to streaming. Some may keep cable. Some may cut cable but go without. The Pie keeps getting smaller.
Subscribed to a braves only mlbtv package for a few years, getting blacked out of 30-40 games per year due to living in Iowa and having blackout restrictions for 6 different teams. Tried a VPN and no matter which I used, the mlbtv page refused to load. Got a jailbroke firestick, now. Cheaper than the mlbtv package and can watch any game I want.
With the diamond sports news I’m sure the blackouts will no doubt continue.
So you are breaking the law and bragging about it?
Guess so? Still have an active mlbtv subscription. Better than most streamers.
Good news for Toronto, being owned by Rogers and all games broadcast by Rogers cable giving the Blue Jays steady reliable $. Could position them ahead of those 11 teams for free agents, or even trades if those team look to unload.
They will still have to overpay.
If I’m not mistaken, I think the Braves deal carried over to Bally and is supposed to end in ‘27 (if Diamond survives that long). Hopefully going forward the Braves can get a better deal that will allow more fans to actually watch. Money wise the deal is garbage anyway compared to other clubs which I guess is why they are the lucky ones.
There have been reports over the years about them restructuring the deal where it’s actually better than many think (i.e. average), but certainly not in the upper echelon of competitive teams. We have an anonymous Time Warner exec to thank for that deal.
I have an idea.
Maybe focus on putting winning teams on the field so revenue can come primarily from attendance and stadium advertising, rather than TV rights.
Cap salaries, or at least contract length, so the consumer doesn’t get raked over the coals in the aftermath.
Fire Manfred.
Shorten the season.
Whoa! Everyone wins.
Attendance and win-loss records are mostly uncorrelated, and to the extent they are, they’re both caused by a 3rd factor, market size, instead of each other. That is, in fact, the primary problem with the current incentive structure.
Seamaholic – I know for an absolute incontrovertible fact that many fans are unwilling to pay ballpark prices for teams at or below .500. It’s just not worth it.
Shortening the season makes literally everybody lose
Stan lee – regular season is meaningless. Just causes injury and wastes time, all for TV revenue.
@SSS
Even better, have broadcasters bid based on what ads they could actually sell.
They do put winning teams on the field. 18 teams at .500 or better. 17 teams last year. 16 the year before.
Oh and JoeBrady – most are mediocre, flawed teams.
This will ensure the off season moves at a glacial pace
Can anyone explain why Diamond has this kind of power over the teams, to where the teams hope they can renegotiate a contract after being dropped? Are there no other solutions other than sticking with a company that basically sucks?
The teams can do anything they want once the contract is voided. Sometimes negotiating a cheaper contract with Bally is their best option.
They don’t. There is a hearing that starts on Monday October 7th in the bankruptcy case. MLB is disputing this filing, or proposal, by DSG. Its doubtful that Judge Lopez rules to allow it to go forward. People have to remember that MLb and the teams are the creditors. They get to a voice in the decision. They get to decide if they will accept the proposal.
MLB teams are not creditors. They have a contract for services. It’s very likely the judge allows Bally to end the contracts since they are money losers.
Go read the MLB filing from today.
MLB can file anything they want. Corporations in bankruptcy are allowed to pick and choose which contracts they drop. The Atlanta contract is a separate contract from all the other team contracts. It will be very surprising if the judge sides with MLB.
The corporation filing the bankruptcy has forfeited their right to make business decision when they file bankruptcy. Contracts they drop or accept or renegotiate are decided by the bankruptcy judge.
Before they file for bankruptcy, the company can attempt to drop any contract that they are legally allowed. Once they file that bankruptcy its out of their hands, All they can do is file motions to ask the judge in the bankruptcy case to allow them to do things. they can’t even give employees raises without judicial review and approval.
From looking at the case itself, Diamond Sports was required to make a filing by October 2nd, the one that we are reading about here. In it they asked for a quite a few things. There will be another hearing that will start on October 7th that will review the things the court previously allowed Diamond Sports to do and review their current financial records. MLB has until early November to file their objections to this most current filing by Diamond Sports and then there will be another hearing that starts on November 14th when the judge will hear arguments from both sides on today’s filing by Diamond Sports.
Until the judge rules, Diamond Sports cannot change anything unilaterally.
Luckily I have Metro/T-Mobile and the MLB package is free every year. $199.value!
that’s great for you, but there are blackout rules. MLB needs to end that garbage so we can stream who we want, when we want. no wonder younger fans like soccer…. everything is in one place….you can stream from anywhere
If MLB succeeds in getting Diamond to drop these 9 teams, that will make 9 more teams with no blackout rules other than games that are carried on a national broadcast or playoff games.
The Padres and Diamondbacks have packages for local resident that have no blackout restrictions other than the national broadcasts and playoffs. The blackouts you have now are because the RSN’s required them to protect their investment in broadcasting the games. If MLB is broadcasting the games, there is no vested interest in blacking out games,
Manfred said at the 2022 Winter Meetings that MLB’s goal, meaning the owners of the MLB teams goal, was to have no blackouts other than the 4% of games that are part of national broadcasts and the playoffs. The playoffs are a cash cow for MLB, so you can be sure that the owners are still going to sell those to the highest bidder.
I have been so much happier with my quality of broadcast with padres tv through mlb with no blackouts outside of a few national games.
This is an opportunity for these franchises to take control of their broadcasting rights. They might need to tighten their belts for a little while, but crawling back to Diamond is not the way to go. How long before you get dropped again, and they need to renegotiate again? It would be far better to join forces with other local sports franchises and form a new, self-owned network.
The Clubs already control their broadcast rights.
This will make it more difficult for the Cardinals to move veteran contracts. Too many teams will be slashing payroll. Maybe Gray can be moved at the deadline next year.
Another winter of handcuffed spending?
MLB has already said that DSG would not be broadcasting any MLB games in 2025.
Diamond is actually saying they want to stop paying money owed to the 8 teams, they stopped paying what was owed when they filed the bankruptcy, but want to keep broadcasting Braves games.
MLB has objected to that in the bankruptcy hearings saying that DSG had never mentioned this before. I doubt the judge in the case allows it,
Bally’s was an included channel on a very basic cable package here in Cincinnati. I’m getting pretty tired of this s**t of chasing games between streaming services. What I will not do is fork over 100+ to fubo or MLB.TV or Steven else gets rights when I can literally find the game free online.
Do I care if it’s unethical? Not at all, it’s a pretty normal response when every possible penny being squeezed out of you.
I still don’t understand why Diamond can’t offer its regional sports channels as stand-alone streamers to reach cord-cutters. Exclusivity contracts with cable/satellite/cable alternatives? I get why some regional providers don’t do it. They are owned by cable companies like Comcast and Charter, which are fighting tooth and nail to keep people tied to big, expensive packages (despite Comcast simultaneously undermining them by driving customers cut cords and move to Peacock). But Diamond isn’t a cable provider. I would think that the bankruptcy court could void exclusivity/non-compete provisions if this was way to avoid Diamond’s insolvency..
As a Tigers fan, I had no issues with Bally or the BSD+ app after cutting the cord last year. Still, I think it best that Detroit and these other teams find a better deal elsewhere. This whole Diamond Sports bankruptcy has been a circus and it needs to come to an end. I too question Diamond/Bally’s ability to survive long term. All I want as a fan is for my team to be paid fairly and for me to get their games uninterrupted.
By the way, good luck with Cleveland
Us reds fans can only sit and watch
Paying twice as much to ten companies to get everything we used to get from one.
What a victory.
Hooray cord cutting!
Thank God. There was nothing stupider than than trying to sell a season package that blacked out your favorite team. How many fans lost interest because they couldn’t see their teams play?
Get this straightened out. I need my Marlins, Heat, and Panthers!
Always enjoyable to come to a sports comment section to get hot takes and lectures on economics. : -)
The history here is as part of the Disney/Fox merger, Disney/Fox was told to divest 22 regional Fox Sports Networks affiliates + Fox College Sports. The Sinclair Broadcast Group and Byron Allen’s “Allen Media Group” acquired the above assets forming Diamond Sports Group as a subsidiary of Sinclair, later selling naming rights to Bally.
cnbc.com/2019/05/03/sinclair-to-buy-21-regional-sp…
The assets included rights to 16 NBA teams, 14 MLB teams, and 12 NHL teams and this could not have been worse timed or worse financed, with $8.8B in debt. Covid was a huge body blow in 2020 from which they never recovered. Along the way there was fighting among Diamond and it’s parent Sinclair and no doubt that in house fighting has not helped. Sinclair was in way over its head in this acquisition.
Scott Boras just threw a bottle of ketchup at a wall he’s so pissed, LOL 😉 Matt Chapman went around Boras a month ago and got himself a “market” contract and I think SF is happy to have given it to him. He’s a new dad who’ll get to enjoy his off-season. I think this news has a huge impact on the opt in/out decisions of several free agents.
Snell OUT He wants business to happen fast, this doesn’t help and whatever slim odds SF could sign him prior to free agency went up fractionally.
Bellinger IN on the fence before this news, I’d be very surprised.
Robbie Ray IN didn’t pitch enough in 24 to walk away from $50M
Nathan Evoldi OUT he gets a larger guarantee than his 25 vesting option
Montgomery OUT, Only to control his next landing spot, likely can beat the $22.5M guarantee but not the AAV, bonus points, Scott Boras won’t get a cut of his next contact if he opts out.
Manea OUT likely can exceed his current AAV on a 2yr or 2yr + option deal
Wacha OUT I could see KC extending him in front of his opt out.
As for MLB, the timing sucks but maybe they’d be better served bringing everyone who wants to come under their umbrella to do so now. Bring stability to the RSN market in the short term plus sort out what MLB’s best long term strategy for MLB local broadcasting. Odd Miami would be so eager to do a new deal.
White Sox, as sad as a season they had, are actually going in the opposite direction. Sensing the end of the RSNs, they actually have created a sports network that while eventually positioned as a part of cable packages, is also available for free over the air. A full slate of Sox, Bulls and Hawks games now available to anyone who has an antenna. Back to the future. The consumer wins
No MLB teams will be with Diamond Sports Group in 2025. They have no contracts with MLB beyond 2024 as part of rulings the bankruptcy judge, Lopez?, made earlier this year.
Considering how well the Padres and Diamondbacks did in selling the single team, non-blacked out MLB.tv subscriptions and getting themselves in front of more TV households than Diamond Sports could deliver, I don’t think MLB is worried about Diamond’s request to the court to dump those teams. Seems more like that is what MLB wants so they can take over the broadcasting for as many teams as possible.
DSG can’t get the hell out of MLB (& NBA) broadcasts soon enough. When they shut out multiple major streaming services with their over priced demands, they lost a huge portion of revenue. These idiots hurt themselves while also holding fans hostage, to their ignorant, contract demands.
MLB should have taken this over years ago. And sued DSN for damaging the product. I hope the DSN ownership group has to move back in with their parents!
How does one just “walk away” from a legal contract?? Asking for a friend…
Depends on who you are and who you know. This country has dramatically changed thanks to a certain agenda over the past 40+ years in this country. Welcome to the Corporate States of America where greed and power reign and very little accountability!
Off Topic here…. Totally Disgruntled, pissed off and Angry Toronto Blue Jays fan here.
Will the Guardians Please Take Back the 2 Cleveland Clowns, shapiro and his useless lackie GM atkins back ??
They’ve ruined our ball team …. 🙂
What in the world did they do to that team? They were the up and comers for a few years with supposedly incredible talent and then things just kinda went quiet.
I paid 19.99 per month for years to watch brewers baseball while living in MI without a cable subscription, what’s not being mentioned here is sometime in ‘23 i went from not only being blacked out from tigers games but live brewers games as well in an attempt to “force” me/others to get that cable subscription but problem is no cable provider in MI will give me brewers games so wtf am I supposed to do…. Not watch baseball I guess…. Or stream it illegally for free despite the fact I was happy paying the 19.99 per month to watch until that was just taken away…. How does Man-Fruad still have a job…. What a bunch of frauds in general going around lying, stealing, raping babies ect only to lay the blame on the working stiffs, jigs up morons and for every act of evil perpetrated against trust and innocence good will rise up with twice the resolve…. “Harris” going around saying gun buybacks will be mandatory…. Now “she’s” going around on Oprah saying “oh someone breaks into my house they’re getting shot”…. This isn’t even political in the slightest so don’t get your undergarments in a bundle, it’s truth VS lies and good vs evil, whether it’s big money baseball, big money “TV” big money corporations/big money politics…. It’s all the same big money bs and most people see right through it and Thank God for that, sleep tight!!
The Reds are tight in a normal year. Give them an excuse, such as losing TV revenue and we may see yet another rebuild.
Things are looking up for the Reds. They just hired Terry Francona. I would be happy IF the Tigs didn’t have AJ to hire Tito. He’s quality.
Diamond/Sinclair are awful. Let them burn in hell. But also please let me watch the Royals next season.
For everyone upset at this, just consider the lack of thinking involved in all of this with these billionaires trying to control television.
We all know that everytime stupid stuff like this occurs, and bundled services try to monopolize sports coverage, it just sends consumers to piracy platforms, the bad guys make a ton of money, and certain companies benefit from selling those easily converted devices that can access everything.
Let’s be honest, if this doesn’t get sorted out by the affected markets, how many of you are going to be buying certain easily convertible devices, and watching some online videos on how to convert them…or calling “the guy” to buy one? We know how this goes. Billionaires need to get a clue that they need to stop with the stupid stuff that affects our access to watching sports because there are other sources that prevent them from getting our money. We’re willing to pay and don’t care who we have to.