Diamond Sports to broadcast 2024 Rangers, Guardians, Twins games

Sinclair

02/02/2024 18:48

By Dietrich Knauth
       NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Bankrupt U.S. sports
broadcaster Diamond Sports Group reached agreements on Friday to
televise Texas Rangers, Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins
games in 2024, giving it a roster of 12 Major League Baseball
teams as it moves ahead with an Amazon-backed  AMZN.O 
restructuring agreement.
    Diamond Sports is a Sinclair Broadcast  SBGI.O  unit that
operates regional sports channels under the Bally Sports brand.
It said in court filings in Houston bankruptcy court that the
renewed agreements resolved a possible lose-lose scenario that
could have canceled the teams' broadcast contracts outright,
cutting into Diamond's revenue and leaving the teams scrambling
to find new broadcast arrangements for a baseball season that
begins in late March. 
    Diamond did not disclose financial terms of the new
agreements.
    "We are pleased to have reached agreements with the
Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers that work
for all parties and enable us to continue delivering
high-quality, live game broadcasts on Bally Sports to dedicated
fans through the 2024 season," Diamond Sports said in a
statement.   
    Diamond entered the year with television rights to 11 MLB
teams, but sought to renew an expired agreement with the Twins
and renegotiate terms with the Rangers and Guardians, leading
those teams to seek early termination instead. 
    The agreements reached on Friday will allow Diamond to pay
less than its previous contract rate, allowing the broadcaster
to earn a profit on the broadcast contracts for one more year,
while giving the teams breathing room so they the find new
television partners for 2025, according to the court filings.
    The Rangers and Guardians will truncate their existing
contracts, while the Twins, whose contract expired in 2023, will
essentially get a new one-year contract with Diamond. 
    Diamond filed for bankruptcy in March 2023, caught between
expensive broadcast rights agreements and a drop in revenue due
to cord-cutting by sports viewers. The sports broadcaster had
been headed toward a liquidation of its business before reaching
a restructuring deal in January with its lenders, Sinclair, and
Amazon. 
    Diamond will receive $450 million in financing from its
existing lender group, $495 million from Sinclair and $115
million from Amazon, using the funds to pay down older debts and
continue operations. 
    Amazon will take a minority equity stake in Diamond as part
of the deal, and Amazon's Prime Video will stream MLB, NBA and
NHL games as permitted by Diamond's contracts with sports teams.
    Diamond has streaming rights for just five of the 12 MLB
teams - the Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Kansas City Royals,
Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers - under contract, which has
been a source of contention between Diamond Sports and MLB.
    For 2024, Diamond and Amazon will have the right to stream
games for 15 NBA teams, 11 NHL teams, as well as those five MLB
teams.

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Diamond Sports in deal to emerge from bankruptcy, signs Amazon
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 (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and
Will Dunham)
 ((Dietrich.Knauth@thomsonreuters.com;))