A bankruptcy judge has approved the plan put forward by Diamond Sports Group for the company to return from bankruptcy. The Athletic’s Evan Drellich was among those to first report the news.
Today’s confirmation hearing was the last step in a long-drawn-out process for DSG to return to business as usual, or at least some semblance of such. The company remains the broadcast home of the Braves, Cardinals, Marlins, Angels, Tigers, and Rays for 2025 and beyond. However, it will no longer host the Twins, Guardians, Brewers, Rangers, and Reds. The Royals could also be looking elsewhere for a broadcast deal; their relationship with DSG is still up in the air. Further changes include a new name for DSG’s regional sports networks (RSNs), FanDuel Sports Networks, and a deal to make DSG’s RSNs available on the Amazon Prime streaming service (for an additional fee).
The Braves and Major League Baseball filed an objection to DSG’s proposal last Friday, but Drellich noted that they later withdrew the objection. The United States Trustee Program also issued an objection, but Judge Christopher Lopez approved the plan regardless.
Reports emerged about two years ago, in the early days of 2023, that the company was in financial trouble. Cord cutting had delivered a big blow to the RSN model, impacting DSG and several other companies. DSG officially filed for bankruptcy in March of 2023 and it seemed at times as though they might not survive as their deals with teams fell apart one-by-one.
They have continued to hang on, though with a diminished portfolio. DSG used to have deals with the Padres and Diamondbacks, though both were dropped by DSG last year as part of the bankruptcy process. MLB took over the broadcasting, leaving things relatively unchanged for TV viewers while also opening up a direct-to-consumer streaming option. The Twins, Guardians and Brewers will be going down that path in 2025 as well. The Rangers and Reds are also cutting ties with DSG, though the future broadcast situation with those two clubs is less clear.
DSG will see if a pivot to streaming can help them. Many of their previous deals were only for in-market television broadcasting but Drellich relays today (X link) that the Braves have granted DSG streaming rights, meaning that the company now has those rights for each of the clubs that it still has deals with.
Whether that can that business model is sustainable in the long run for DSG remains to be seen. MLB expressed concern that the club would fall back into bankruptcy in the near future, so time will tell if that line of thinking is correct or not.
Whether it’s through DSG or MLB, these teams are generally expected to be receiving less revenue for the short term. It’s possible that streaming will eventually grow and make up some of the difference, but it’s impossible to know what those revenue streams will look like down the line. Some clubs, such as the Padres and Twins, have already lowered their payrolls in the wake of this paradigm shift. The Cardinals and Rangers plan to follow suit in 2025. That seemingly contributed to the weak offseason a year ago, so it’s an important facet of the baseball landscape and something to monitor going forward, for teams and players alike.
For fans of the clubs still with DSG, they can maintain the status quo if they like, as watching the games through a cable package will still be an option. But fans of many of these teams who are cord cutters will also now have the option of streaming the games without blackout restrictions, such as through the FanDuel app or an add-on to Amazon Prime.
Commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a desire to market a multi-team streaming bundle one day, something akin to MLB.TV but without local blackouts. If DSG had not been able to emerge from bankruptcy, then MLB would have had a base of almost half the league to include in that bundle. That didn’t end up coming to pass but perhaps the league could work out a deal with the company involving the few remaining clubs still connected to DSG.
