-
Alden Gonzalez, Editor of ESPN
Diamond Sports Group will not pay scheduled royalties for Padres San Diego at the end of the extension on Tuesday, according to a statement from the DSG, the team’s match against Miami Marlins that afternoon was the final of Bally Sports.
In the future, until the end of the regular season and perhaps forever, Major League Baseball is expected to take control of the Padres broadcasts.
Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair that operates its broadcasts under the name Bally Sports, is entering bankruptcy proceedings following significant financial losses due to debt incurred during the initial purchase and the speed wire cutting speed has been increasing rapidly in recent times. nation. Diamond owns a regional sports network of 42 teams across the NHL, NBA and MLB, the latter consisting of 14 teams.
Teams not paid royalties are essentially free to break their contracts and the Padres, which boasts one of the most star-studded teams in the sport, were the first to be eliminated. The league had previously planned to make sure that local fans didn’t miss any of their team’s games if they weren’t under Diamond ownership.
According to sources, MLB will stream the Padres game through the MLB.TV app for free to all fans through Sunday. Local fans can then pay $19.99 a month or $74.99 a year to watch Padres games through the platform. MLB has also cut contracts with a number of different cable companies such as DirecTV, AT&T UVerse and fuboTV, among others, to broadcast matches on other cable channels. The ant will be announced by the federation on Tuesday evening.
Padres’ online talent, who are paid by the team, will continue to perform their usual roles, and the team will employ camera operators, producers, and other behind-the-scenes people on the site. liberal establishment, which is not much different from their current one. employment status.
As part of the statement, a spokesperson for Diamond Sports Group wrote: “Although DSG has substantial liquidity and has paid out rights to teams, the economics of the Padres’ contract do not match reality. MLB has forced us to continue to refuse to negotiate live-to-consumer (DTC) rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay in full. enough for every team in exchange for those rights. We are continuing to broadcast the game to the teams under our contract.”
A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Houston in which a bankruptcy judge will preside over Diamond’s claims that it should essentially pay lower rights fees to Cincinnati Red Devil, Texas Ranger, Arizona Diamondbacks And Cleveland Guardians to account for market forces that have dramatically reduced the traditional cable model in recent years. The judge’s ruling, which could be made Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, will play a key role in Diamond determining what other contracts the company holds or cancels as part of the process. bankrupt.
Sinclair, a subsidiary of Diamond Sports Group, originally paid $10.6 billion to buy the rights to broadcast 21 MLB, NHL and NBA teams from Fox in 2019. However, the company had to shoulder the burden. owes about $8 billion to do so. The interest-only payment was foregone on February 15, 2023, triggering a 30-day grace period that resulted in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, during which time Diamond will dispose of its less most profitable and hopefully run a more sustainable business.
The Padres enter this season with the third-highest pay in baseball and have a roster armed with stars like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto And Xander Bogaerts. But given its cable-cutting speed, lack of streaming rights, and a contract that is said to be worth $1 billion over 20 years, Diamond claims it lost tens of millions of dollars by retaining the Padres.
Diamond only has streaming rights to 5 of its 14 MLB teams and has stated that it needs to secure those rights to support the Bally Sports+ app and become a more sustainable business. Diamond proposes to continually pay royalties to all the teams under its umbrella in exchange for those streaming rights, but MLB is poised to extend further rights to a company that has had to file for bankruptcy. , declined the offer.
