Sinclair(Bally's Sport) nearing a deal for NBA streaming rights for direct to consumer offering

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Who tf is loaning them $450M??? And why would you give a company that tried (and succeeded?) to go bankrupt, a loan?

495 is not 450.
 

MplsGopher said:
Who tf is loaning them $450M??? And why would you give a company that tried (and succeeded?) to go bankrupt, a loan?

495 is not 450.
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as close as I can tell, the people who are owed money by Diamond - at least some of them - now believe that Diamond has a legitimate chance of surviving as an ongoing business. the Amazon deal seems to be significant (even though Amazon will only have streaming rights to 5 teams). there are some people who think this is a first step for Amazon to invest more money in Diamond - but that all hinges on getting streaming deals with more teams.

and you are talking about two different pools of money. the $450m is new financing meant to keep the company operating. the $495m is a settlement with Sinclair. as noted in the article, Diamond was suing Sinclair, claiming that Sinclair didn't meet its contractual obligations to Diamond. under this new agreement, Diamond is dropping the lawsuit and Sinclair is paying Diamond $495m to settle the dispute. (as in, "here's some money - now go away..")

also noted in the article - because the new agreements, Diamond will now retain rights to its NBA and NHL teams after the 23-24 season. but as of now, all of its agreements with MLB teams end after the 2024 season.
 

Diamond adds literally no value other than as nothing more than a container of the rights.

Amazon should just buy the rights. It’s not like Diamond does anything.
 

an update on the Diamond saga - from Sportico:


Diamond Sports - the operator of the 19 Bally Sports-branded RSNs has submitted its official reorganization plan to the Houston court that oversees the case.

Diamond attorneys filed the 91-page re-org plan to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, with an eye toward an April 17 hearing in front of Judge Christopher Lopez.

As part of the proposed re-org, Diamond will extricate itself from the legacy naming-rights deal with Bally’s Corp. that its parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, inked on Nov. 18, 2020.

According to the disclosure document, under the terms of Diamond’s $495 million settlement with Sinclair, Bally’s commercial agreement “will be rejected, and Bally’s will release and waive any claims against Diamond, including any claims for rejection damages.”

That said, Diamond may “continue to use the Bally’s trade name (at no cost to Diamond) through the end of the 2024 MLB season.”

Among the most pressing matters of business is to nail down long-term affiliate deals with its three biggest distributors: DirecTV, Charter and Comcast. Per the disclosure doc, “approximately 81%” of Diamond’s distribution revenue is derived from those three operators, which together serve some 39.5 million domestic video subscribers.

As Diamond noted in Friday’s filing, cord-cutting has robbed the RSNs of 22 million subscribers, or 35% of the company’s customer base, since 2019.
 

So the only way to watch the Twins is if you have cable or satellite? It won't be available to stream through the Bally's app or any other?
 


Is any of this stuff connected with none of the Twins Grapefruit League games being broadcast in any format so far?
 

Slim Tubby said:
So the only way to watch the Twins is if you have cable or satellite?
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That’s how it has been.

I don’t think there is a single Streaming Live TV provider in the country that carries BSN?

Slim Tubby said:
It won't be available to stream through the Bally's app or any other?
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The standalone option I believe died when the mess all went down. Now there’s some kind of Amazon Prime deal. Who tf knows.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Among the most pressing matters of business is to nail down long-term affiliate deals with its three biggest distributors: DirecTV, Charter and Comcast. Per the disclosure doc, “approximately 81%” of Diamond’s distribution revenue is derived from those three operators, which together serve some 39.5 million domestic video subscribers.
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My counsel to those three would be: F em.

You know this is a one year thing. You know that people didn’t drop YTTV when they cut BSN (or FSN, if they ever did carry BSN at all I can’t remember). Same here: people won’t drop their current live TV package just because it no longer includes FSN.
 

Slim Tubby said:
So the only way to watch the Twins is if you have cable or satellite? It won't be available to stream through the Bally's app or any other?
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Fubo or Directv Stream are the streaming options. I've tried Fubo and it wasn't bad except it kept saying I was in the wrong city but I think that's my isp's issue.
 



Ope3 said:
Is any of this stuff connected with none of the Twins Grapefruit League games being broadcast in any format so far?
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Yes and no. Bsn is being lazy / cheap.
 

howeda7 said:
Yes and no. Bsn is being lazy / cheap.
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Feels like they could just use robo cameras and the radio feed to just put something on. For Spring Training, nobody really cares about production values. I would think they could get some ad revenue to more than make it pay for itself.

Just seems odd, but I guess if they are going belly up anyway no incentive to try to make few bucks.
 

howeda7 said:
Fubo or Directv Stream are the streaming options. I've tried Fubo and it wasn't bad except it kept saying I was in the wrong city but I think that's my isp's issue.
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Thanks...I cancelled Direct TV last November and went 100% streaming. I always just assumed the Twins would be available through the Bally's app. What a disaster for fans and MLB.
 

I would love to know what went down behind the scenes with the Twins. when Provus came out and said there would be no blackouts, at that point it appeared that the Twins were going to go the same route as the Padres and have MLB take over the TV deal with streaming through MLB. and then ---- something happened, and they went back to Diamond. Next year......who knows?

a couple of notes:
--Diamond/Bally under the re-organization maintains its contracts with NBA and NHL teams after the current season. all of the MLB teams are on 1-year deals. So - assuming they work out all of the financial questions - Diamond plans to continue operating its RSN's - including BSN, which would still have the Wolves and Wild on cable TV and satellite. Streaming is a separate issue - depends on what happens with Amazon.

--the naming-rights deal between Diamond and Bally ends with the current seasons, so assuming there is still a MN-based RSN next year, it will not be called Bally - it will have a new name. Could just be Diamond Sports or maybe they can find another naming-rights sponsor. the whole idea with Bally was that it would be tied into betting somehow, but that never materialized.
 



Slim Tubby said:
Thanks...I cancelled Direct TV last November and went 100% streaming. I always just assumed the Twins would be available through the Bally's app. What a disaster for fans and MLB.
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There's no good explanation for why they didn't let Bally's have streaming rights since it's a one year deal except that MLB told them not to. But that's not much of an explanation.

Does your 100% streaming include YouTube TV/Hulu Live? If so, Fubo/DirecTV stream are about the same price.
 

howeda7 said:
There's no good explanation for why they didn't let Bally's have streaming rights since it's a one year deal except that MLB told them not to. But that's not much of an explanation.

Does your 100% streaming include YouTube TV/Hulu Live? If so, Fubo/DirecTV stream are about the same price.
Click to expand...
Youtubetv is $73 per month.

Directtv - $116 per month if you want regional sports.

Fubo - $90 to include regional sports.

Hulu - $77 per month.

I am a YT TV user. If I need to watch Ballys sports, definitely would go with the Fubo option
 

howeda7 said:
There's no good explanation for why they didn't let Bally's have streaming rights since it's a one year deal except that MLB told them not to. But that's not much of an explanation.

Does your 100% streaming include YouTube TV/Hulu Live? If so, Fubo/DirecTV stream are about the same price.
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I do have Hulu+Live TV. I'll have to check into it.
 

howeda7 said:
Does your 100% streaming include YouTube TV/Hulu Live? If so, Fubo/DirecTV stream are about the same price.
Click to expand...
But probably nowhere near as good of quality.

I tried AT&T TV once, when that was the brand it was using, and it was an absolute trash heap in terms of streaming quality. That was a quick cancel. Have not tried Fubo.

YTTV and Hulu Live are excellent.
 

This is why this stuff isn't going away.

 


Or they signed up and forgot to cancel. It's like $10/mo? Probably goes unnoticed on the credit card statement.

They sure as hell aren't going to send an email like "hey you haven't logged in in 6 months! Do you want to cancel?"
 

Update on Diamond Sports - from The Athletic:

In a quick hearing on Wednesday, Judge Chris Lopez allowed DSG (Diamond Sports Group) to continue working on an Amazon-backed plan introduced in January, one Diamond believes can save it from liquidation.

Lopez approved what’s called a disclosure statement — an outline, essentially, of what Diamond intends to do, which includes the help of $450 million in financing.

From here, the biggest step is the actual confirmation of the plan. That hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. CT on June 18. Any objections are to be filed by 4 p.m. on May 22.

Last week, all three partner leagues— baseball, basketball, and hockey — told the court they were reserving their rights, a means of self-protection as the process goes forward.

“MLB and the Clubs have expressed serious concerns to the Debtors and their advisors about the assumptions underlying the Debtors’ business plan,” the league wrote in its filing, adding that “MLB and the Clubs question whether the Debtors will be able to demonstrate to the Court that confirmation of the Plan is not likely to be followed by the liquidation, or further financial reorganization, of the Debtors … ”**
Diamond has told the court that its subscribers dropped by 35 percent from 2019 to late February. Experts in January were dubious of projections Diamond offered as to its potential growth coming out of bankruptcy.

**(in other words, Major League Baseball thinks that Diamond's plan is a crock of dung.....)
 

You may have heard something like this before..

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic.

It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular-season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

ESPN/ABC, as the website Puck reported Thursday, also has a framework of a deal with the expectations that an agreement will be completed. ESPN/ABC is expected to keep the NBA Finals on its networks for the duration of its deals. Like Amazon, ESPN’s new contract also is expected to be at least a decade in length.

All of the details are not finalized yet, but all sides are under the expectations they will get done. The NBA, Amazon and ESPN all declined to comment.

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals but has not ruled out adding a fourth.

The NBA is finishing nine-year deals that pay it $2.6 billion on average from ESPN and TNT Sports. Those contracts end after the 2024-2025 season.

The advancement in the Amazon and ESPN talks leaves incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns network TNT Sports, to face off with NBC, owned by Comcast, for the likely last package of games. Warner Bros. Discovery has the right to match deals, but NBC could structure an agreement in a way that makes it difficult.

While there is still work to be completed for the final arrangements, the current packages are going to be pruned slightly to create the third partner. In one arrangement, ESPN will cut down from around 100 games to around 80, according to executives briefed on the talks.

A natural landing spot for Amazon’s regular-season games could be Thursday night, where it already has the NFL from September to early January. In recent years, the NBA has moved its games off Thursday during that time to not go head-to-head with the NFL. It is expected to then have significant playoff inventory. Amazon has shown interest in global rights, which has been a key part of the NBA’s negotiating strategy as it lined all of its domestic and international deals to end following the 2024-2025 season..

theathletic.com

Amazon Prime has framework deal for NBA broadcast rights

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals, but has not ruled out adding a fourth.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
 


we've seen this happen before with disputes between providers and carriers over carriage agreements - but the twist on this situation is that Diamond/Bally is still under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court. the income Diamond receives from Comcast is essential to its reorganization plan. so a long-term dispute between Comcast and Diamond could impact the final approval of Diamond's plan.

details from "Awful announcing"

Diamond Sports Group and Comcast failed to reach an extension on their carriage rights deal by Tuesday’s deadline, meaning Comcast customers will lose access to Bally Sports regional sports networks.

Comcast was the second-largest cable carrier in the U.S. in 2023 with 14.1 million subscribers at year end, according to Leichtman Research.

“It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast indicated that it intends to pull the signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams,” Diamond Sports Group said in a statement. “Comcast has refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours.

The statement noted that Diamond will continue to seek a new deal with Comcast, and in the meantime, Comcast customers can access Bally Sports through Fubo, DirecTV, or through Bally Sports+.

A Comcast statement said Diamond had “declined multiple offers.”

“We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they work through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the term for another year, which they opted to not exercise,” the statement read.

The Comcast news comes just hours after Diamond had announced an agreement with Cox Communications to continue carriage earlier in the day. The agreement, announced via a Diamond media release, will keep Bally Sports networks on Cox systems throughout the U.S.

And Tuesday’s news comes just a day after Diamond announced a new multi-year deal with DirecTV, the nation’s third-largest carrier. In early April, Diamond announced a new multi-year carriage deal with Charter Communications, the largest carrier in the U.S. in 2023.
 

a quick addition - sounds like the dispute between Diamond and Comcast is over tiers. Comcast wants to put the Diamond RSN's on a higher-priced digital sports tier. Diamond wants to be included in the basic channel lineup.

this is not the only current dispute of its type. Fubo TV, a bundled streaming service, just dropped all of the Warner Brothers/Discovery channels from its lineup over a dispute over carriage fees.

Charter Communications - owner of Spectrum Cable TV services - just reached a temporary agreement to continue carrying Paramount networks including CBS and Nickelodion as they continue negotiations over a new agreement.
 

Does anybody know if there are weather related signal issues for Direct TV customers who get the service through wifi instead of the dish?
 

jamiche said:
Does anybody know if there are weather related signal issues for Direct TV customers who get the service through wifi instead of the dish?
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Nope. I've had DirecTV Stream for a couple of years after about 10 years of having their dish. Can't think of any issues since switching.
 

Iceland12 said:
You may have heard something like this before..

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic.

It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular-season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

ESPN/ABC, as the website Puck reported Thursday, also has a framework of a deal with the expectations that an agreement will be completed. ESPN/ABC is expected to keep the NBA Finals on its networks for the duration of its deals. Like Amazon, ESPN’s new contract also is expected to be at least a decade in length.

All of the details are not finalized yet, but all sides are under the expectations they will get done. The NBA, Amazon and ESPN all declined to comment.

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals but has not ruled out adding a fourth.

The NBA is finishing nine-year deals that pay it $2.6 billion on average from ESPN and TNT Sports. Those contracts end after the 2024-2025 season.

The advancement in the Amazon and ESPN talks leaves incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns network TNT Sports, to face off with NBC, owned by Comcast, for the likely last package of games. Warner Bros. Discovery has the right to match deals, but NBC could structure an agreement in a way that makes it difficult.

While there is still work to be completed for the final arrangements, the current packages are going to be pruned slightly to create the third partner. In one arrangement, ESPN will cut down from around 100 games to around 80, according to executives briefed on the talks.

A natural landing spot for Amazon’s regular-season games could be Thursday night, where it already has the NFL from September to early January. In recent years, the NBA has moved its games off Thursday during that time to not go head-to-head with the NFL. It is expected to then have significant playoff inventory. Amazon has shown interest in global rights, which has been a key part of the NBA’s negotiating strategy as it lined all of its domestic and international deals to end following the 2024-2025 season..

theathletic.com

Amazon Prime has framework deal for NBA broadcast rights

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals, but has not ruled out adding a fourth.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
Click to expand...
Optimal would have been NBC and TNT to get games.

Who didn't love NBA coverage from NBC in the 90's?


And I'd be bumming if Inside the NBA was gone. Still love watching those 4
 

short ornery norwegian said:
we've seen this happen before with disputes between providers and carriers over carriage agreements - but the twist on this situation is that Diamond/Bally is still under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court. the income Diamond receives from Comcast is essential to its reorganization plan. so a long-term dispute between Comcast and Diamond could impact the final approval of Diamond's plan.

details from "Awful announcing"

Diamond Sports Group and Comcast failed to reach an extension on their carriage rights deal by Tuesday’s deadline, meaning Comcast customers will lose access to Bally Sports regional sports networks.

Comcast was the second-largest cable carrier in the U.S. in 2023 with 14.1 million subscribers at year end, according to Leichtman Research.

“It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast indicated that it intends to pull the signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams,” Diamond Sports Group said in a statement. “Comcast has refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours.

The statement noted that Diamond will continue to seek a new deal with Comcast, and in the meantime, Comcast customers can access Bally Sports through Fubo, DirecTV, or through Bally Sports+.

A Comcast statement said Diamond had “declined multiple offers.”

“We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they work through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the term for another year, which they opted to not exercise,” the statement read.

The Comcast news comes just hours after Diamond had announced an agreement with Cox Communications to continue carriage earlier in the day. The agreement, announced via a Diamond media release, will keep Bally Sports networks on Cox systems throughout the U.S.

And Tuesday’s news comes just a day after Diamond announced a new multi-year deal with DirecTV, the nation’s third-largest carrier. In early April, Diamond announced a new multi-year carriage deal with Charter Communications, the largest carrier in the U.S. in 2023.
Click to expand...
Have to think this gets resolved quickly or it could be fatal to Diamond / Bally's.
 

Where am I going to get my pheasant hunting and poker now!?!?!?!

The Twins really pulled a Twins by re-upping with the bankrupt carrier for more money and then pocketing the money while they cut payroll. This move is so Pohlad, they should teach it in business schools as a Pohlad.

 
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