Diamond Sports activities Group’s 14-month-long saga via chapter court docket will lengthen a bit additional. Diamond, which offers regional broadcasts all through the nation underneath the title Bally Sports activities, pushed its affirmation listening to again by about six weeks, from June 18 to July 29 and 30, in response to a discover filed on Thursday.
The affirmation listening to, scheduled for 10 a.m. CT in Houston, will basically decide whether or not Diamond will emerge from Chapter 11 reorganization, at which level MLB, the NBA and the NHL may lastly acquire some much-desired readability with lots of their regional sports activities networks.
A consultant from Diamond mentioned pushing the affirmation listening to again permits the corporate extra time to barter offers with the NBA and the NHL and to supply monetary projections that mirror its being unable to safe a brand new contract with Comcast, its third-largest distributor. However the delay inches the listening to nearer to the beginning of the next NBA and NHL seasons after attorneys from each leagues expressed a robust want to keep away from one other yr of uncertainty throughout final week’s standing convention.
“We now have certainty on the overwhelming majority of our principal income streams, which is helpful for our group and league companions and their loyal followers, following multi-year agreements with 10 of our high 12 distributors, together with our not too long ago introduced take care of Fubo,” a spokesperson for Diamond Sports activities Group wrote in a press release. “We have now decided to maneuver the listening to a couple of further weeks to give attention to reaching rights agreements on mutually useful phrases with our league and group companions and to finalize an up to date marketing strategy properly prematurely of the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons.”
Diamond has secured offers with three of its high 4 distributors in Constitution, DirecTV and Cox, however there was no indication {that a} take care of Comcast will finally materialize, a growth an MLB lawyer referred to as “devastating” in chapter court docket on Might 15. The dearth of a brand new deal prompted Comcast to drag Bally Sports activities’ native MLB broadcasts off the air in the beginning of Might, leaving followers all through the nation with out the flexibility to observe their groups. These video games are blacked out domestically on the league’s streaming arm, MLB.television, on account of exclusivity provisions.
Diamond maintains the rights for 12 baseball groups, however the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers are underneath contracts that reach solely via the 2024 season. Diamond additionally held the rights for 16 NBA groups and 12 NHL groups, however these offers expired on the finish of the 2023-24 seasons.
In its submitting, Diamond additionally moved voting and objection deadlines for its restructuring plan again from June 5 to July 18.
