MLB D-Backs Want Out Of Bally Broadcast Deal

Lawyers for Diamond Sports Group, the parent company for Bally Sports, filed an emergency motion Thursday requesting that a U.S. Bankruptcy judge reject the group's broadcast agreement with the MLB team. The ruling is expected this week.

“The rights fee payments under the Diamondbacks agreement total tens of millions of dollars annually and increase yearly,” the lawyers wrote in the motion, according to Front Office Sports. “Unfortunately, the debtors [DSG] lose significant sums on the Diamondbacks agreement.” 

Bally Sports Arizona currently airs Diamondbacks games through Diamond Sports Group's agreement with the team.

Front Office Sports' A.J. Perez wrote that Diamond Sports Group called the Diamondbacks' TV agreement "unnecessary and burdensome."

“The current costs associated with performing under the Diamondbacks agreement outweigh the revenues the debtors are able to obtain through broadcasting Diamondbacks games,” Diamond Sports Group wrote in the filing, according to Front Office Sports. “As such, the debtors have concluded that the Diamondbacks agreement does not fit within the debtors’ long-term strategic plan and therefore is not necessary to the debtors’ business.”

Earlier this month, a federal bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond Sports to pay the full value of its media contracts to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers.

Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed in March. Diamond said in a financial filing last fall it had debt of $8.67 billion.