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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff WriterNov 14, 2024, 12:07 PM ET
CloseESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
Diamond Sports Group, the largest regional-sports-network operator in the United States, emerged from bankruptcy Thursday, on the 20-month anniversary of it filing for Chapter 11. Judge Christopher Lopez, presiding in the Southern District of Texas, approved the company’s reorganization plan in court, saying it is “compliant with every provision under the law.”
Diamond will emerge with 27 MLB, NBA and NHL teams under its portfolio, all of which can be watched through linear cable or streamed online.
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The company recently agreed to a new naming-rights deal with FanDuel, as well as a commercial agreement with Amazon that will eventually allow subscribers to watch Diamond’s RSNs locally through Prime Video. Those deals — along with agreements with the company’s largest distributors, most notably Comcast — helped get Diamond past the finish line. Until last month, Diamond’s broadcasts operated under the name Bally Sports.
One of the clearest signs that they’d emerge arrived on Wednesday afternoon, when Major League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves withdrew their objection. MLB has had a testy relationship with Diamond over the last couple of years, annoyed by missed payments and skeptical of the company’s financial sustainability. A tipping point arrived in early October, when Diamond submitted a reorganization plan that called for it to shed every MLB contract except that of the Braves.
But Diamond has since agreed to revised deals with the Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays, all of which include direct-to-consumer streaming rights. A revised deal with the Braves, that also includes streaming rights, followed, prompting MLB and the Braves to withdraw their objection. The company maintains the rights to 13 NBA…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42388454/diamond-sports-group-emerges-bankruptcy
Author : Alden Gonzalez
Publish date : 2024-11-14 17:08:00
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