Diamond Sports Group and Major League Baseball reportedly forged a tentative agreement late last week that would allow another year of non-liquidated life for the bankrupt regional sports networks operator, and on Tuesday Sports Business Journal reported major details about that proposed deal.
According to the report, nine MLB teams currently under contract with Diamond for distribution of local TV rights on Bally Sports-branded channels will be paid their full contracted rates for the 2024 season. This includes the Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays.
Three Bally Sports MLB teams are reported by SBJ not to be part of the agreement: The World Series Champion Texas Rangers, the Cleveland Guardians and the Minnesota Twins.
Diamond will reportedly render offers to each team by the end of the week, presumably at rates lower than their existing local TV rights contracts. Notably, the Twins' $55-million-a-season deal with Diamond expired back in early October.
Also notable: Five of the teams Diamond reportedly has agreed to move on with -- the Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers, and Rays -- have signed their streaming rights over to direct-to-consumer service Bally Sports Plus.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon has talked to Diamond about making an investment into the bankrupt Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary, as well as entering into a deal to stream its Bally Sports games on Amazon Prime Video.
For that deal to happen, it would also seem necessary for the remaining MLB teams to surrender their streaming rights.
Diamond has been in Chapter 11 restructuring since March, trying to relieve itself of $8 billion of debt.
