Diamond Sports – owner of the TV rights for 11 MLB teams – and Major League Baseball are working on a deal that would provide certainty about which teams Diamond will and will not broadcast in the near future – particularly during the 2024 MLB season. Diamond is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and after 2024, Diamond could well be broken up as part of its restructuring plan.
However, there is also the possibility that Diamond could continue to exist in a different form beyond 2024 due to the insolvency proceedings. Diamond and its creditors are in talks with a major streaming partner, Amazon, about such a proposal, which would ultimately require court approval, people briefed on the talks said Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported the potential of Amazon investing in Diamond.
MLB and Diamond Sports declined to comment. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The negotiations are still ongoing and have provided positive impetus, said a person informed of the talks. But the potential impact on baseball is both complicated and limited.
Diamond now owns the rights to almost 40 teams in the MLB, NBA and NHL. If a deal were to go through, Amazon would be able to transfer the teams for which Diamond owns the digital rights, or streaming rights as they are alternatively known. Importantly, Diamond does not own the digital rights to every single team broadcast over the air.
Diamond, through its various regional sports networks under the Bally brand, currently televises 11 MLB teams: Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Guardians, Miami Marlins, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers.
But Diamond is currently said to only own the digital rights to five of those teams: the Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers and Rays.
Therefore, even if Diamond and Amazon reach a court-approved agreement, Diamond would not be able to stream games through Amazon for any of its other MLB teams beyond these five. Of course, other teams and MLB could negotiate with Diamond for expanded access to digital rights, but MLB and Diamond disagree on the value of MLB's streaming rights.
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