Diamond Sports Group Will Shut Down After 2024

Diamond Sports Group (DSG) was back in court on Wednesday for yet another hearing in its bankruptcy proceedings. The company filed for Chapter 11 protections in March, and since then has been attempting to plot out a path to satisfying its debts and emerge as a viable business with its 19 regional sports networks (RSNs) and in-market streaming service Bally Sports+, The Streamable reports.

At a Nov. 15 hearing, Diamond got approval from Judge Christopher Lopez on an altered broadcasting deal for the NBA this season, though Sinclair and MLB object.

Lawyers for both Diamond and Sinclair say the former company could liquidate after the next baseball season.

Diamond could agree to a similar deal with the NHL as soon as this week, but MLB will be tougher to convince.

It was a good news/bad news kind of day for Diamond on Wednesday. Judge Lopez approved the broadcaster’s new deal with the NBA, which calls for lower rights fee payments to 15 NBA teams by their respective Bally sports channels in exchange for the league reclaiming all of those broadcast at the end of this season, as opposed to the end of the 2024-25 season. The deal means that if your team is on a Bally Sports channel, it will almost certainly stay that way all season long. A similar agreement to be finished with NHL broadcasting after 2023-24 could be agreed to in the coming days.

The bad news is that the deal was objected to by Major League Baseball, as well as by Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBG). MLB says the proposal made to surrender all of its broadcast rights after the 2024 season ends leaves much to be desired, and it will be sending DSG’s lawyers its own proposal soon.

Sinclair is still nominally Diamond’s parent company, though it hasn’t had day-to-day control over the sports vertical in nearly a year. Still, it says Diamond’s plan for potentially exiting Chapter 11 protections doesn’t factor in that by the end of the 2024 MLB season DSG will owe it $250 million in management fees, and its plan incorporating the new NBA deal doesn’t factor those payments in. Diamond is currently suing Sinclair for $1.5 billion that it says Sinclair improperly funneled away from it.