Bally Sports RSNs Go Dark After Optimum Carriage Deal Expires

The Bally Sports RSNs have gone dark on Altice USA’s Optimum cable systems, as negotiations to renew the legacy carriage deal expired at midnight. The operator, which serves 2.09 million video subscribers across 21 states, issued a statement in which it charged Diamond Sports Group with seeking “unsustainable demands” for the 12 RSNs that were knocked off its channel lineup earlier this morning.

In a nod to Diamond’s ongoing bankruptcy case, an Optimum rep said it was unreasonable to ask subscribers to shoulder the burden of increasingly high carriage fees when the future of the RSNs remains up in the air. “We do not believe it is fair for Diamond … to ask customers to pay high rates for their channels when they are still negotiating content rights with various sports leagues and do not yet know what content will be available to their viewers,” the spokesperson said, by way of a statement issued Monday.

The clubs blacked out in their home markets include the Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.

The failure to agree to terms on a renewal with Optimum comes on the heels of the dissolution of Diamond’s distribution deal with Comcast. Two months ago, 15 of the Bally Sports RSNs went dark on the cable giant’s lineup after Diamond balked at Comcast’s plan to shift the sports channels to a pricier digital tier. Negotiations have not resumed since the split was made official.

While Comcast closed out the first quarter of 2024 with 13.6 million residential video customers, the judge overseeing Diamond’s bankruptcy case has said that it remains to be seen if the stalemate will cast a pall over the company’s long-term prospects. “Whether Comcast is essential to a deal or not, I don’t know,” Judge Christopher Lopez said last month. (If the court remains on the fence as to the significance of the Comcast impasse, the relatively small stakes of the Optimum-DSG standoff are unlikely to cause much of a ripple down in Houston, where the case is being heard.)

By Diamond’s own reckoning, it has secured renewals with 10 of its 12 top carriers, a roster that accounts for approximately 84% of its overall customer base.

“It’s disappointing that Altice has chosen to stop airing our channels, and we regret that fans are impacted,” a spokesperson for DSG said Monday in a statement issued to Sportico. “We have been engaged in negotiations with Altice with the goal of reaching a fair agreement for Optimum’s continued distribution of the Bally Sports regional sports networks. Unfortunately, Altice has rejected multiple proposals with terms similar to what other distributors have already agreed to while demanding carriage on a premium sports tier that would require fans to pay more to retain access, demonstrating they are unwilling to let their subscribers enjoy broadcasts of their favorite teams.”

In a note to customers, Optimum said it remains “open to negotiations” with Diamond for a renewal, while encouraging MLB fans to keep up with their hometown teams via FuboTV. In late May, Diamond inked a multiyear carriage deal with Fubo, which finished the first quarter with 1.51 million subscribers.

Per Altice’s most recent quarterly earnings report, Optimum saw its base of video customers shrink 12% over the last year, which translates to a net loss of 285,800 subscribers. That’s in keeping with an industry-wide 12.3% drop in traditional bundled connections over the same 12-month period. Altice completed a $17.7 billion deal to snap up the former Cablevision systems from New York Knicks/Rangers owner James Dolan in June 2016.

Last month, Judge Lopez ruled that Diamond must provide its league partners with anonymized documentation of its carriage agreements with Cox, Charter and DirecTV. The judge explained that the disclosure of these financial details would be necessary if Diamond is to present a viable plan for emerging from bankruptcy during a confirmation hearing scheduled to begin on July 29.