A Bally Sports display is shown in the eighth inning of the MLB game between the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 9, 2023.
David Berding | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
Bally Sports regional channels return to Comcast Cable TV customers.
Diamond Sports, owner of the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks, reached an agreement with Comcast on Monday that will allow its networks to begin streaming to cable customers on Aug. 1.
The networks, which carry local regular-season games for Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams in several markets, stopped broadcasting for Comcast cable customers on May 1, the start of the MLB regular season. Fans of 11 MLB teams, including the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins, were affected.
The deal paves the way for Diamond Sports to survive after filing for bankruptcy last March. The company has been working to secure contracts with several pay-TV providers, including Comcast.
“Signing a new broadcast agreement with Comcast, our third-largest distributor, is a critical step in our turnaround effort, and we're pleased that fans will once again be able to access broadcasts of their local teams through Xfinity,” Diamond CEO David Preschlack said in a news release.
Diamond has also entered into transportation agreements with Letter CommunicationsDirecTV and Fubo.
“With our distribution certain, we are focused on finalizing an agreement with the NHL and resolving our ongoing negotiations with the NBA. We realize that time is of the essence as the basketball and hockey seasons quickly approach, and once agreements with our team and league partners are completed, we intend to move quickly to submit a reorganization plan to the Court,” Preschlack said in the statement.
Leagues have recently raised concerns about the future of Diamond Sports in court hearings, questioning whether the company could come up with a viable business plan ahead of the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons this fall.
Diamond had been scheduled to seek court approval for its reorganization plan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Monday, but postponed the hearing as it sought to reach a deal with Comcast.
The company has said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy protection under the ownership of its creditors.
Negotiations between Diamond and Comcast broke down in May following a dispute over terms — namely how quickly the cable provider could shift sports networks to a tiered model, meaning customers would have to opt for packages that include the channels at a higher rate rather than having them included in broader cable packages.
The agreement reached Monday allows Comcast to offer Diamond Sports networks on those tiers outside of the broader cable package, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified to discuss details of the deal.
Pay-TV companies like Comcast have been losing customers in recent years as customers opt for cheaper streaming options. Comcast said last week that it lost 419,000 household cable customers during the second quarter and now has about 13.2 million subscribers in total.
Regional sports networks, once a lucrative business, have been hit particularly hard by customers abandoning cable packages.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
