Diamond Sports Group has signed a deal with the NBA to allow Bally Sports to have the rights to broadcast local matches featuring 15 teams until the end of this season. However, Bally Sports will hand back the rights to broadcast these matches after the conclusion of the current 2023/2024 season.
Some of the 15 teams are expected to get lower licensing fees from the deal, but they’ll have greater certainty over coverage and revenue. They will also have the chance to pursue other sports content distribution methods moving forward.
Reports also indicate that DSG will have the chance to extend the deal by a year if they continue operating a regional sports network in any team’s market. That will make the games readily available in the local market, with online basketball betting sites also set to welcome more punters on different NBA markets.
The deal comes at a time when the National Basketball Association is preparing to hit the sports market with their national domestic broadcast rights. Their current deal is expected to expire at the end of the 2023/2024 campaign and they are widely expected to craft a package that will attract the interest of a streaming service. They might also bundle local NBA games as part of the package.
According to the NBA spokesperson, the league has reached an agreement with Diamond Sports to allow the franchise to continue distributing games in its 15 markets. While the deal is yet to be approved by the court, it allows Diamond Sports to get out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in just eight months.
Diamond Sports had earlier filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in March, hoping to restructure their huge $8 billion debt by renegotiating their massive local broadcasting rights with the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and NBA partners. For the company, long-term broadcasting rights for spots aren’t sustainable anymore with the decline of pay-TV households and an increasing shift to streaming services.
Reportedly, Diamond Sports is close to signing a similar deal with the National Hockey League as they are set to decide the MLB contracts that they want to retain. The DSG spokesperson said that the franchise’s newly signed deals with the National Basketball Association, Comcast, and their creditors reflect huge progress on their path moving forward.
Upon approval by the court, the agreements will allow Diamond Sport to continue offering live game broadcasts to sports fans throughout the 2023/2024 MLB, NHL, and NBA seasons. The Diamond Sports Group has been broadcasting NHL and NBA games since the beginning of the season and they’ll keep doing so as the court contemplates their motion. The franchise is also set to finalize its negotiations with the NHL.
In the medium term, a clear broadcasting rights situation might give Diamond Sports a lifeline to survive amid the changing sports landscape. According to the New York Post, Diamond Sports parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting Group paid Disney $10.6 billion for Fox Sports RSNs in 2019 are hoping to re-acquire the subsidiary for $850 million. Sinclair Broadcasting spun Diamond Sports into a separate entity legally before entering bankruptcy protection.
Which teams will be available on Bally?
The NBA teams that will be available on Bally until the end of the 2023/2024 campaign include Charlotte, Atlanta, Cleveland, LA Clippers, Dallas, Detroit, Indiana, Memphis, Milwaukee, Miami, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Orlando, San Antonio, and New Orleans. That gives networks, fans, and NBA teams some stability since the list represents about half of the 30 teams competing in the league.
While the new deal gives fans certainty of regional broadcasts throughout the 2023/2024 season, things might get mucky for most teams in the upcoming seasons. However, that doesn’t mean that Bally Sports won’t negotiate new deals with successful teams like the Memphis Grizzlies.
Due to their impressive success with the Atlanta Braves, the Bally Sports network is believed to be among the most successful regional broadcasting options in the Southeast. The franchise has also been quite successful in other sports, although multiple teams have chosen to part ways with them in recent years.
Conclusion
With the NBA currently negotiating a new national TV deal for its broadcasting rights, the league and its teams are expected to get a huge increase in their revenue in the coming years. However, the teams will need to get through this year before the increases are realized. However, the deal with Diamond Sports gives fans the certainty that their favorite matches will be readily available.
