Diamond Sports will stop broadcasting for most baseball teams.
Beleaguered Diamond Sports Group, the owner of Bally Sports Kansas City and 11 other regional sports networks that broadcast baseball games, announced in bankruptcy court it would not broadcast games in 2025 for all teams except the Atlanta Braves. Four teams - the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers - already had deals that expired in 2024.
That means the Royals may not be on Bally Sports Kansas City next year, and could negotiate a deal with a new broadcaster provider.
Update: The Royals are a “joint-venture team” whose deal cannot be rejected as of now, but could be dropped in the future.
CORRECTION: Diamond has not formally dropped every team but the Braves. Technically, what it did today is drop the contracts of 2 teams: the Rays and Tigers. The 5 other teams besides Atlanta couldn't technically be dropped today, but Diamond is implying they have to renegotiate pic.twitter.com/S8xI4Q63WO
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) October 2, 2024
Diamond Sports Group could be among those that negotiate new deals with clubs, and they did renegotiate deals with NBA and NHL clubs on their regional sports networks. But MLB has questioned the long-term viability of Diamond Sports and has been hurt by tough negotiations by Diamond with cable carriers that make games unavailable to many subscribers in viewing areas.
The move may bring MLB a step closer to bringing broadcasting rights under one umbrella, similar to how MLS sold its rights to Apple. But in the short term, it does represent uncertainty over future revenue streams that could impact decisions made by teams this off-season in regards to player personnel. The Twins cut payroll by $30 million last winter due in part to uncertainty over their broadcasting revenues.
This doesn’t mean Rex Hudler and Ryan Lefebvre are going away, or that games won’t be broadcast at all, just that we may be rid of Bally Sports for good. Bally’s presentation was plagued with technical issues, particularly with their direct-to-streaming app. CEO of Diamond Sports CEO Chris Ripley also envisioned integrating in-game gambling features, but fortunately the saga may end without that annoyance. Baseball took over production for the Padres, Diamondbacks, and Rockies after their deals fell apart last year and games were made available in almost three times as many homes.
