EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DIAMOND SPORTS BANKRUPTCY: MLB, NBA, AND NHL CONCERNS AMID CARRIAGE DISPUTES

Concerns were raised in court by the representatives of the MLB, the NBA and the NHL after Diamond Sports Group was unable to land a new deal with its third-largest distributor, Comcast. This led to Bally Sports channels being pulled off the air at the start of May. Baseball fans, especially from Southeast states, were left scrambling to watch their favorite teams in action.

More than 12 MLB teams' broadcasts are carried over this channels and with the future uncertain, MLB attorneys weren't happy about the situation they had to go through in the middle of the season.

"We are coming into the middle of yet another season where Diamond is an undependable partner," said MLB attorney, James Bromley. "This is not a deal that Major League Baseball and its clubs have signed up for. … It's been two full weeks since carriage has been dropped by Comcast, and there is not a word of when it might get picked up, and on what terms."

An NBA attorney also expressed concern in regards to Comcast's future association with Diamond Sports.

"We have more questions than answers," said Vincent Indelicato, a lawyer for the NBA, in court Wednesday. "At a minimum, we need to understand the economic reality for Diamond of being dropped by Comcast. We need to understand the implications of any Comcast deal that Diamond might possibly do." [via The Athletic].

This uncertainty is also biting the NHL future broadcasting plans and they need to have it done to avoid any loss of revenue.

"The day-to-day approach of whether or not a professional team's games will be broadcast doesn't work for us, and can't continue," said NHL representative Shana Elberg.

Diamond Sports attorney is "optimistic" about securing a deal with Comcast amid concerns from MLB, NBA and NHL

Apart from Xfinity's Comcast, Diamond Sports has multi-year deals in place with two of their largest distributors, Charter and DirecTV. They also have a deal in place with the fourth-largest distributor, Cox.

On Wednesday, attorneys from Diamond Sports expressed optimism about finding a new deal soon and that this type of impasse with distributors happens "time-to-time."

"I want your honor to know that the deal we offered Comcast, without getting into the specifics, is a similar deal that we got with Charter and with DirecTV, both of whom are larger than Comcast," said Diamond lawyer Brian Hermann.

"This is not the first time that a content provider and distributor have reached an impasse. … Those things happen from time to time, and they have often been resolved and we remain optimistic that we can resolve this as well."

The court has set a confirmation hearing for June 18 to hear Diamond Sports ability to operate beyond 2024. As per the company's attorney, Diamond Sports has a deal in place starting in 2025, after which they won't carry "Bally Sports" branding.

As per the latest update, though June 18 hearing has remained unchanged, chances are it will get extended. Diamond Sports asked for an extension on Wednesday for an intermittent deadline, which has now moved from May 22 to June 5.

2024-05-16T11:52:20Z dg43tfdfdgfd