Television

MLB, MLBPA Agree To Redirect CBT Money To Teams Losing TV Revenue

By Anthony Franco | July 24, 2024 at 5:05pm CDT

MLB and the Players Association have agreed to a change to the collective bargaining agreement that’ll help teams whose television rights situations are uncertain. Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports that the league is now permitted to redirect its portion of competitive balance tax money to clubs that have lost TV revenue. Those teams can receive a maximum of $15MM or the necessary amount to compensate for their revenue drop.

Teams that exceed the competitive balance tax threshold are required to pay fees at the end of each season. The league and union split the money. The MLBPA’s portion funds its retirement accounts. That is unaffected by today’s agreement. The league now has the discretion to allocate some of its half of the money to clubs that have seen their TV revenues drop in either of the last two seasons. According to Drellich, the MLBPA projects the league’s half of the CBT payments to total around $150MM this year. Today’s agreement permits the commissioner’s office to distribute half that money to the teams affected by TV problems.

It’s a sensible arrangement for both parties. MLB gets more flexibility to support organizations that have lost some or all of a key revenue source in recent seasons. The union expects that’ll lead to a trickle-down benefit on player salaries. Last offseason, roughly a third of teams pointed to concerns about the long-term viability of their TV contracts as justification for limiting payroll raises or outright payroll cuts. Most of those organizations had contracts with Diamond Sports Group, which is trying to survive as it concludes a lengthy bankruptcy proceeding.

Diamond dropped its contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks midway through last season. This spring, it renegotiated its deals with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers at lesser fees after threatening to abandon those contracts. Texas had a quieter offseason than expected for a defending World Series champion. Minnesota sliced payroll over the winter and its ownership is reportedly still reluctant to take on money via deadline deals. AT&T Sports dropped its local TV deals with the Rockies, Pirates, Mariners and Astros last offseason. Pittsburgh, Seattle and Houston found alternate broadcasting arrangements (likely with reduced revenues), while MLB stepped in to handle Rockies broadcasts within market.

A good number of teams remain skeptical about the long-term future of their regional sports networks. Diamond is carrying 12 teams on its networks at least through the end of this season. MLB has made no secret of its wariness about the broadcaster’s viability for ’25 and beyond.

Diamond’s ongoing conflict with Xfinity hasn’t done it any favors in that regard. A contract dispute between the broadcaster and the carrier has kept Xfinity customers from watching any games on Diamond networks since May. Blackout restrictions prevent MLB from stepping in to handle in-market broadcasts, leaving a subset of fans without the ability to watch their teams for a couple months.

There was a positive development on that front this morning. An attorney for Diamond said at today’s bankruptcy hearing that DSG and Xfinity had made progress in negotiations and expected to finalize a new contract “in the very near term” (link via Alden González of ESPN).

MLB Announces Partnership With Roku For Sunday Broadcasts

By Darragh McDonald | May 16, 2024 at 2:55pm CDT

May 16: MLB will get $30MM from Roku over three years for this deal, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. That will be $8MM in the first year, $10MM in the second and $12MM in the third. That’s well below what Peacock had been paying previously but right in line with what Peacock was trying to negotiate down to. He also notes that Roku has 120 million subscribers, according to the announcement from the company and the league. A report from Tony Maglio of IndieWire in March listed Peacock’s subscriber tally as 31 million.

May 13: MLB announced that it has officially reached a deal with Roku to broadcast Sunday games. The first game of the new multi-year deal will be this Sunday May 19.

The league previously had a deal with Peacock to broadcast early Sunday games. It was reported back in April that the Peacock partnership was likely ending. Peacock evidently was willing to continue the arrangement at a lower price point than the $30MM they had been paying annually. Later reporting indicated they wanted to renegotiate the deal to around $10MM. However, MLB was close to lining up another pact with a different platform. Shortly thereafter, further reporting indicated that Roku was likely to be the new platform.

Now that the Roku deal is official, the details show it will be slightly different than the Peacock arrangement. Previously, the “Sunday Leadoff” games on Peacock all started shortly after 11:30am or just after noon Eastern, with the other games starting at least 90 minutes later to give Peacock a window of exclusivity. That will be the case with some of the contests on Roku this year, but not all. Here is the full slate, with all times ET:

May 19, Red Sox @ Cardinals, 1:05pm
May 26, Blue Jays @ Tigers, 11:35am
June 2, Twins @ Astros, 1:05pm
June 9, Giants @ Rangers, 1:05pm
June 16, Cardinals @ Cubs, 1:05pm
June 23, Diamondbacks @ Phillies, 11:35am
June 30, Pirates @ Braves, 11:35am
July 7, Diamondbacks @ Padres, 4:10pm
July 14, Yankees @ Orioles, 11:35am
July 21, Brewers @ Twins, 1:05pm
July 28, Reds @ Rays, 11:35am
August 4, Giants @ Reds, 12:05pm
August 11, Angels @ Nationals, 11:35am
August 18, Marlins @ Mets, 12:05pm
August 25, Nationals @ Braves, 12:05pm
September 1, Dodgers @ Diamondbacks, 4:10pm
September 8, Rays @ Orioles, 12:05pm
September 15, Reds @ Twins, 1:05pm

Another change from the Peacock arrangement is that the games will be free, with no subscription required. There are no blackouts for Roku or MLB.TV users. The full details of how to access the games are provided by Brian Murphy of MLB.com.

Since there’s less of a focus on exclusivity and the accessibility is greater than under the Peacock, it seems that Roku and MLB are more focused on building the brand and fan interest, a sentiment that is present in statement from both parties.

“As television programming, live sports, and the leagues have fragmented across networks, apps, and multiple packages, Roku—home to all of them—plays an increasingly crucial role for viewers and advertisers,” said Charlie Collier, President, Roku Media, quoted in the MLB press release. “With this deal, Roku delivers free, live, weekly Sunday baseball and 24/7 baseball curation, destinations, and channels across our platform. The lead-in to all of television is now the lead-off for Sunday baseball as well. It’s a terrific partnership.”

“With free games available to anyone, MLB games on Roku will be widely accessible to fans,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media, also from the statement. “Since Roku serves as an entertainment gateway for millions, this partnership offers a valuable new promotional and distribution platform for MLB games and content.”

Additionally, the broadcast teams will be “market-focused,” according to the announcement. The full slate of broadcasters wasn’t announced, but Chip Caray, Will Middlebrooks and Alexa Datt are listed for the first game between Boston and St. Louis. Since Caray and Datt cover the Cards and Middlebrooks the Red Sox, perhaps each game will feature a mix of broadcasters from both teams, though that’s speculation.

In addition to the live games, there will be an MLB Zone which “will include a more robust MLB FAST channel, with premium sports content around the clock including up-to-date highlights, MLB Game of the Week replays, Minor League Baseball game replays, and other baseball content.”

Latest On Diamond Sports Group Bankruptcy

By Anthony Franco | May 15, 2024 at 10:59pm CDT

Attorneys for MLB (as well as representatives for the NHL and NBA) fired their latest salvos at Diamond Sports Group during a Wednesday hearing in the broadcasting company’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Evan Drellich of the Athletic and Alden González of ESPN were among those to cover the developments.

The most recent source of frustration is Diamond’s stalled negotiations with Comcast (Xfinity). The sides didn’t reach agreement on a new contract before May 1, leading Comcast to pull Diamond’s Bally Sports channels off the air at the start of the month. That has left Xfinity subscribers without the ability to watch in-market games for the 12 teams carried by Diamond. (Diamond has reached agreements with each of Charter, DirecTV and Cox.)

That’s understandably irritating for both the impacted fans and the league itself. “We are coming into the middle of yet another season where Diamond is an undependable partner,” an attorney for MLB said in today’s hearing. “This is not a deal that Major League Baseball and its clubs have signed up for. … It’s been two full weeks since carriage has been dropped by Comcast, and there is not a word of when it might get picked up, and on what terms.”

MLB has not filed any formal objection with the court, and it’s not clear if they’re considering doing so. Yet the Diamond/Comcast dispute only adds to MLB’s longstanding questions about Diamond’s viability. DSG reached a restructuring/streaming deal with Amazon in an effort to sustain operations past 2024. MLB officials have made no secret of their skepticism about the long-term significance of that partnership.

Representatives for Diamond tried to assuage some of those concerns by telling the court they’re close to a naming rights deal that will change the Bally Sports moniker to a new brand for 2025 and beyond. An attorney for Diamond called the ongoing dispute with Xfinity “disappointing” but said the company “(remains) optimistic” the sides will be able to work an agreement.

The court still needs to formally approve Diamond’s restructuring plan to end the bankruptcy proceedings. The confirmation hearing is currently scheduled for June 18.

MLB, Roku In Talks Regarding Sunday Morning Broadcasts

By Anthony Franco | May 2, 2024 at 11:36pm CDT

Major League Baseball is in “advanced talks” with the streaming company Roku about hosting Sunday morning broadcasts this season, writes Andrew Marchand of the Athletic. Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal first reported two weeks ago (on X) that Roku was a potential option to carry the Sunday morning games.

MLB introduced the Sunday morning game as part of a streaming deal with Peacock in 2022. The NBC streaming service walked away from that agreement a few weeks ago. Marchand writes that Peacock wanted to renegotiate the fee to pay the league roughly $10MM per season, well below the annual $30MM price it paid for the first two years. It isn’t how clear how much the Roku talks, if agreed upon, would pay the league.

Whatever the specifics, MLB evidently finds the negotiations with Roku more promising than Peacock’s recent offers had been. If talks between MLB and Roku result in a deal, the service would have exclusive broadcasting rights to a Sunday game starting at either 11:30 am or shortly after noon EDT. No other games would start before 1:30 pm that day, so the Roku game would be the sole contest for a couple hours. Peacock had 19 such broadcasts last year ranging from late April to early September. Marchand writes that Roku may take a reduced number — at least in 2024 — because five weeks of the season have already passed.

MLB has an ongoing partnership with Apple TV+ that broadcasts two Friday night games exclusively on that streaming service. That deal reportedly pays the league $85MM per season. The Roku deal would certainly be far less lucrative, reflecting both the different time slot and increased uncertainty about the broadcasting landscape.

The Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy made the future of regional sports networks a large storyline of the offseason. While the conglomerate survived to carry local broadcasts for 12 teams in 2024, questions remain about its long-term viability.

Diamond found itself back in the news this week after failing to reach agreement on a new deal with Comcast (link via ESPN’s Alden González). The distributor pulled Diamond’s Bally Sports networks off its channels as a result, leaving its subscribers without access to in-market broadcasting in cities where Diamond has the rights. MLB’s RSN deals with Diamond prevent the league from lifting blackouts for fans affected by the Diamond/Comcast dispute. That leaves fans affected with little recourse but to hope for Comcast and Diamond to eventually work out an agreement.

Latest On Padres, Diamond Sports Group

By Anthony Franco | April 18, 2024 at 11:38am CDT

11:38am: The second payout is evidently not all that significant. Sanders reports (on X) that the Padres will receive roughly $17MM in total from the settlement, indicating the remaining-asset value is roughly $6.5MM.

10:06am: There were minor developments in the long-running Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy proceedings this week. Most notable is the revelation of a deal that the broadcasting conglomerate struck with the Padres last summer.

As Daniel Kaplan of Awful Announcing first reported, Diamond agreed in July to a deal that could pay the San Diego organization as much as $78.9MM to resolve breach of contract claims which the Padres made after Diamond dropped the team’s TV deal last spring. The Padres initially sought a $162MM award as compensation for the lapsed television contract before agreeing to the lesser sum in mediation.

That money has not yet been paid. The settlement calls for an initial payment of roughly $10.5MM, followed by a second payout worth a maximum of $68.3MM that’ll be determined by calculating the remaining assets of that contract’s value after the Diamond/Padres RSN network is officially liquidated. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Diamond will owe the approximate $10.5MM payment by the middle of May. The timeline for the second sum is still not clear.

As part of the agreement, the Padres and Diamond agreed to drop all litigation against one another. The Friars have proceeded without an RSN deal since Diamond abandoned the contract. MLB has handled in-market broadcasting in San Diego via MLB.tv. The league covered 80% of what the Padres would’ve received — Sanders writes that the deal was valued around $60MM annually — for the 2023 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that the league would not cover lost rights fees for this year and beyond.

The Padres are one of two teams which Diamond had covered but abandoned midseason. The company did the same with the Diamondbacks a few weeks after dropping the San Diego deal. It is not known if Diamond has agreed to any kind of settlement with the Arizona franchise.

Diamond continues to hold local broadcasting rights for 12 teams: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Guardians, Marlins, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers and Twins. While it initially seemed as if Diamond would disband after the 2024 season, an influx of cash as part of a streaming partnership with Amazon has given the company confidence about its viability beyond this year. That’s not entirely shared by MLB, which continues to express skepticism about Diamond’s long-term prospects. The Atheltic’s Evan Drellich writes that the bankruptcy court has scheduled a hearing for June 18 on the company’s specific plans for its $450MM in financing from the Amazon deal.

MLB Likely To Move Sunday Morning Broadcasts Off Peacock

By Anthony Franco | April 11, 2024 at 7:51pm CDT

MLB’s streaming partnership with Peacock appears to have come to an end. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports that MLB is closing in on a deal with an undisclosed platform to take over the Sunday morning broadcasts that had been on Peacock during the 2022-23 campaigns.

“Our initiative with Peacock was a valuable experience with a collaborative partner in our ongoing effort to explore a variety of streaming offerings for our fans as their consumption habits continue to evolve,” an MLB spokesperson told Marchand.

As has been the case for a number of teams’ local broadcasting contracts, MLB’s streaming deal with Peacock apparently hit a snag over rights fees. Marchand reports that NBC, which operates the Peacock streaming service, has paid the league $30MM annually for exclusive rights to 19 Sunday morning games in each of the last two seasons. While NBC expressed interest in retaining those broadcasts, Marchand writes that they sought to renegotiate the fee at a lesser amount.

MLB evidently felt it could secure a better deal with another service. Assuming a new agreement is reached, the Sunday morning games would remain in effect for this season on the new broadcasting platform. Last season, the Peacock-specific games began either shortly before or after noon ET, at least 90 minutes before the rest of that day’s slate.

Since 2022, MLB has also had a streaming partnership with Apple TV+ that affords the platform exclusive rights for two Friday night games each week. That deal, which Marchand writes is valued at $85MM per season, is a seven-year contract that remains in effect.

NL West Notes: Dodgers, Pham, Harrison, Rockies, D’Backs

By Mark Polishuk | January 6, 2024 at 2:46pm CDT

Tommy Pham could be one of Dodgers’ targets as the team looks for a right-handed hitting outfielder, MLB.com’s Juan Toribio writes. The L.A. lineup is heavy on left-handed batters overall, and another righty bat might be needed in the outfield in particular with James Outman and Jason Heyward slated for the bulk of at-bats in center and right field. Chris Taylor and Manuel Margot (both righty swingers) will be in the mix for left field work and, in Margot’s case, more of a general backup role. Prospect Miguel Vargas will also get a look in left field, yet adding a more proven bat to this group would only enhance what is already a loaded Dodgers roster.

Pham has been on the Dodgers’ radar before, and would come at a lower cost than another rumored Los Angeles target in Teoscar Hernandez. Pham is coming off another productive season that saw him hit .256/.328/.446 with 16 homers over 481 combined plate appearances with the Mets and Diamondbacks, and he hit very well for Arizona in the NLDS and World Series.

Rockies Notes: Gomber, Kinley, TV Deal

By Anthony Franco | September 6, 2023 at 11:05pm CDT

The Rockies will place Austin Gomber on the 15-day injured list, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com (Twitter link). The left-hander was scratched from his start over the weekend because of back discomfort. He hasn’t pitched since August 28.

Colorado has yet to announce the move, which’ll presumably be backdated by the maximum allotted three days. It isn’t clear if Gomber will be able to return within the final three weeks of the season. He has made 27 starts on the year, ranking second on the team with 139 innings pitched. Gomber owns a 5.50 ERA with a well below-average 14.4% strikeout rate overall, though he showed a bit of progress in the second half. After carrying a 6.40 ERA into the All-Star Break, he has allowed 3.86 earned runs per nine across 49 frames.

It’s certainly not overwhelming production, but Gomber has likely done enough down the stretch to put himself on track for a season-opening spot in next year’s rotation. Only Kyle Freeland looks assured of a rotation job going into the winter, leaving Colorado with plenty of work to do on that front in the offseason.

There’s not much more certainty in the bullpen, which entered play Wednesday ranked 29th with a 5.27 ERA. Among the players the Rox are counting on for key relief roles next season is Tyler Kinley. The right-hander returned from a flexor surgery in August. He briefly landed back on the IL last month and has been limited to eight innings over 10 appearances this year.

Nevertheless, the Rockies are installing Kinley as their closer for the stretch run, as Harding writes. One of the more experienced arms in a young relief group, he turned in 24 innings of 0.75 ERA ball before the injury a season ago. The Rox signed Kinley to a $6.25MM guarantee last offseason, keeping him under contract through at least the 2025 campaign.

The roster isn’t the only thing in flux for the organization going into the winter. The club’s in-market broadcasting is uncertain beyond this season. Kyle Newman of the Denver Post reports that AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain has notified its employees it’ll be shuttering operations at year’s end. The club’s local broadcasting picture for 2024 is to be determined.

Newman writes that it’s possible the Rockies land on Altitude Sports and Entertainment, which is responsible for carrying Nuggets and Avalanche games in the area. MLB could also take over the broadcasts and stream them on the MLB.TV platform in-market for an additional fee, as it has done for the Padres since San Diego’s RSN contract with Diamond Sports Group collapsed in May.

Court Rules In MLB’s Favor In Diamond Bankruptcy Hearing

By Anthony Franco | June 1, 2023 at 9:43pm CDT

There was a notable development in the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy saga this evening. The court ruled in Major League Baseball’s favor on yesterday’s hearing regarding Diamond’s efforts to restructure a number of its local broadcasting deals.

The broadcasting conglomerate has temporarily been paying reduced rights fees (75%, according to Alden González of ESPN) to the Twins, Guardians, Diamondbacks, Reds and Rangers since filing for bankruptcy two and a half months ago. Diamond had sought a ruling that’d require the team to renegotiate their broadcasting contracts to more accurately align with the current market value of broadcasting rights — which has dropped sharply in recent years due to the rise of cord-cutting, contributing to Diamond’s bankruptcy filing.

That argument wasn’t persuasive to the court, which concluded that a change in the market “doesn’t mean the contract price is clearly unreasonable” (relayed by Evan Drellich of the Athletic). As a result, Diamond is now responsible for backpay to the five organizations it had been paying the reduced rate. According to González, the court hasn’t yet set the deadline for those payments. If Diamond fails to meet its responsibilities by whatever dates are ultimately chosen, MLB would have the ability to reclaim the broadcasting rights for those clubs from the Bally networks.

“MLB appreciates the ruling from the federal bankruptcy court in Houston requiring Diamond to pay the full contractual rate to clubs,” the league said in a statement relayed by González. “As always, we hope Diamond will continue to broadcast games and meet its contractual obligations to clubs.”

Diamond carried broadcasts for 14 major league teams entering the season. It forfeited the ability to carry Padres’ games earlier this week by opting not to meet a scheduled payment in that contract. MLB promptly took over in-market broadcasting and is making those games available both for streaming on MLB.TV and via other cable platforms. The league reiterated this evening it is prepared to do so for any other contracts which Diamond lets lapse. Today’s ruling increases the odds of Diamond abandoning other deals, though the corporation hasn’t announced any immediate plans to do so.

Diamond Sports Group Bypasses Payment To Padres, MLB To Take Over Local Broadcasts

By Anthony Franco | May 30, 2023 at 10:34pm CDT

Diamond Sports Group, the corporation which operates the Bally Sports regional networks responsible for nearly half MLB’s local broadcasting deals, has informed the Padres it won’t make its scheduled payment to the club. John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal was first to report the news. Diamond had initially missed a payment a couple weeks ago and had until today to make up the debt if it wished to keep its broadcasting rights.

By declining to do so, Diamond forfeits in-market broadcasting for Friars’ games. Beginning tomorrow, the rights will revert to Major League Baseball. Both Ourand and Alden González of ESPN report that the league will stream Padres’ games in-market on MLB.TV (free of blackout restrictions) at no cost through Sunday. Thereafter, González reports, they’ll be available in-market on MLB.TV for either $19.99 per month or $74.99 for the rest of the season. In addition to the blackout-free streaming options, MLB is expected to make the games available on various non-Bally cable platforms.

Diamond filed for bankruptcy in mid-March, calling into question its long-term ability to honor any of its broadcasting deals. The company had held onto all of its contracts thus far — it missed a payment to the Reds but salvaged the deal by upholding its commitment during the grace period a few weeks later — making the Padres’ deal the first to fall through.

The Padres’ contract with Diamond runs through 2032, according to Ourand. It’s a $1.2 billion deal which Diamond asserts has proven unprofitable. It will let it lapse as a result; in a statement to Sports Business Journal, the company said “the economics of the Padres’ contract were not aligned with market realities” and excoriated MLB for what it called the league’s “continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights.”

Padres’ CEO Erik Greupner provided González with a statement as well. “The Padres are excited to be the first team to partner with Major League Baseball to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option through MLB.TV without blackouts while preserving our in-market distribution through traditional cable and satellite television providers,” it read in part. “Our fans will now have unprecedented access to Padres games through both digital and traditional platforms throughout San Diego and beyond.”

According to both González and Jeff Sanders of the Union-Tribune, San Diego’s on-air broadcasting staff will remain in place. It’s not yet clear whether the pregame or postgame staff might be affected by the shakeup. What is apparent is that access for fans in the San Diego area will be greatly expanded with Bally forfeiting its unilateral in-market broadcasting rights.

To this point, the Padres are the only team for which that is the case. They’re not likely to be the last, however. Diamond’s ongoing bankruptcy case is set for a pivotal hearing tomorrow. Diamond has been paying the Guardians, Reds, Twins, Rangers and D-Backs at lower than contracted rates since filing bankruptcy.

Those clubs are pushing for payment of the overdue rights fees or the severing of those contracts; Diamond has argued for the court to restructure the deals to more closely align with their current market values in light of rampant cord-cutting that has devalued the cable market in recent years. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com each write that league officials aren’t anticipating an official ruling from the court during or directly following tomorrow’s appearance; nevertheless, tomorrow’s hearing sets the stage for a key ruling down the line. In the interim, Diamond will maintain its slate of non-Padres contracts.

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