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Bally Sports’ parent-company, Diamond Sports Group or DSG, is currently in bankruptcy court. It is trying to restructure its deals with different sports teams – which it inherited from Fox when Disney bought Fox and had to sell off the Fox Sports RSNs.
However, during this time, Bally Sports has also not been paying the teams that they broadcast. That included 9 teams: Angels, Braves, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, Rangers, Reds and Twins. However, last week, a judge ordered that they pay what they owe, or they will forfeit the TV rights to those teams.
Now, the company is considering not paying for four of these MLB teams. That’s the Twins, Diamondbacks, Guardians and Rangers. So it’s likely that these teams will be put onto MLB.TV for the rest of the year. That’s if Bally Sports does go through with this and doesn’t pay them.
Bankruptcy is getting messy for DSG
For DSG, bankruptcy is getting pretty messy, and when all is said and done, they may not have many teams left to broadcast. RSNs have had a tough time lately, with AT&T SportsNet shutting down their RSNs, and Bally Sports now in bankruptcy. It’s getting harder and harder for sports fans to watch their local teams.
However, local sports is expensive, and with so many people cutting the cord, it leaves RSNs like Bally Sports with less revenue for the teams they do broadcast. And of course, teams don’t want to lose Bally Sports or any other RSN, because they pay the teams a pretty large sum every few months. Those payments are what help make the crazy, historic contracts that some players receive.
There are sharks in the water, as others are looking to grab these RSNs from DSG. Like Scripps. Scripps believes that all local sports should be on free TV, also known as OTA channels. That’s how it should be, as it will get more and more people on-board to watching the games. Since they won’t have to pay $20 per month for a single team – like Bally Sports+ currently does.
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