A Bally Sports performance is shown during the eighth inning of the game between the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins of MLB at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 9, 2023.
David Berding | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
The National Basketball Association and National Hockey League are concerned about the future of Diamond Sports and whether the regional sports network’s owner can put together a viable business plan ahead of upcoming seasons this fall.
Diamond Sports – which operates its networks under the Bally Sports brand – has been under bankruptcy protection since March last year. The leagues fear the owner of the largest portfolio of regional sports networks will not have a viable business plan ahead of the 2024-25 season.
Attorneys for both leagues expressed their concerns during a status conference in bankruptcy court on Tuesday after Diamond said the hearing to confirm the restructuring plan would be postponed from mid-June to the end of July.
“I want to reiterate why timing is so crucial for the NBA. The start of the 2024-2025 season is getting closer and closer,” NBA lawyer Vincent Indelicato said in court on Tuesday. “A lot of things need to be done well in advance of the season in order to properly produce and distribute games.”
The NHL lawyer expressed similar concerns, noting that if Diamond Sports cannot develop a viable business plan in the coming months, the leagues may struggle to find options for producing and broadcasting games in local markets. Some Major League Baseball teams have already moved forward without their Bally Sports network.
Numerous NBA and NHL teams now have agreements with local broadcast groups to broadcast local games.
Diamond Sports must prepare a restructuring plan outlining its future outside of bankruptcy protection and seek court approval to proceed with it. Approval paves the way for a company to exit bankruptcy protection.
The NBA pushed for Diamond Sports to have “a very clear business plan in place by July at the latest,” Indelicato said Tuesday.
For Diamond, it was a long road to formulate a restructuring plan that involved various negotiations – with lenders to restructure the heavy debt load, with the leagues and teams for the streaming TV rights, and with pay TV distribution partners that Broadcast games.
The recent breakdown in negotiations between Diamond Sports and Comcast Corp. That thwarted the sports network operator’s plans, his lawyers said on Tuesday.
Last month, Comcast customers lost access to Bally Sports networks, affecting fans of 11 MLB teams. However, the coach failure is not yet a problem for NBA and NHL fans, as both leagues are in the postseason. Regional sports networks broadcast local games during the regular season.
Diamond Sports’ attorney said Tuesday the company is still in negotiations with various stakeholders but has reached an impasse with Comcast and has no choice but to “explore alternatives.”
Distributors like Comcast have been rapidly losing pay-TV customers in recent years as people turn to streaming alternatives, and regional sports networks have been among the hardest hit. Additionally, Diamond Sports had a debt load of more than $8 billion Sinclair‘s acquisition of the networks in 2019.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
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2024-06-04 19:01:53
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