A Bally Sports display is shown in the eighth inning of the game between MLB's Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 9, 2023.
David Berding | Getty Images Sport | fake images
The National Basketball Association and National Hockey League are concerned about the future of Diamond Sports and whether the regional sports network 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. Leagues are concerned that the owner of the largest portfolio of regional sports networks will not have a viable business plan figured out before the 2024-25 season.
Lawyers for each league raised concerns during a status conference in bankruptcy court Tuesday, after Diamond said he was delaying his hearing to confirm his reorganization plan from mid-June to late July.
“I want to reiterate why the timing is so critical for the NBA. The start of the 2024-2025 season is rapidly approaching,” NBA attorney Vincent Indelicato said in court Tuesday. “A lot needs to be done before the season to properly produce and distribute games.”
The NHL's lawyer expressed similar fears, stating that if Diamond Sports is unable to put together a viable business plan in the coming months, leagues could be forced to find options to produce and broadcast games in local markets. Some Major League Baseball teams have already moved forward without their Bally Sports network.
Meanwhile, numerous NBA and NHL teams have reached deals with local broadcast station groups to broadcast local games.
Diamond Sports must put together a reorganization plan, outlining its future outside of bankruptcy protection, and receive court approval to move forward. The approval paves the way for a company to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
The NBA has pushed for Diamond Sports to have “a very clear business plan by July at the latest,” Indelicato said Tuesday.
For Diamond, it's been a long road to formulating a reorganization plan filled with several negotiations: with lenders to restructure its heavy debt load, with leagues and teams for television broadcast rights, and with pay-TV distributors that They broadcast the games.
The recent breakdown of negotiations between Diamond Sports and Comcast Corp. ruined the sports network operator's progress, its lawyers said Tuesday.
Last month, Comcast customers lost access to Bally Sports networks, impacting fans of 11 MLB teams. However, the carriage blackout has not yet caused an issue for NBA and NHL fans, as both leagues are in the postseason. Regional sports networks broadcast local regular season games.
Diamond Sports' lawyer said Tuesday that the company is still in negotiations with several interested parties, but has reached an impasse with Comcast, leaving it no choice but to “explore alternatives.”
Distributors like Comcast have been losing pay TV customers at a rapid rate in recent years as people opt for streaming alternatives, and regional sports networks are among the hardest hit channels. In addition to this, Diamond Sports had a debt of more than 8 billion dollars arising from SinclairAcquisition of the networks by 2019.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
