In 2025 MLB Season Diamond Sports May Televise Only The Atlanta Braves

At a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Hearing on October 2, Diamond Sports Group, owner of the largest regional sports network, said for the 2025 MLB season, they will only televise Atlanta Braves games. As a result, Diamond Sports Group will be cutting ties with eight MLB clubs. At the hearing, Andrew Goldman, an attorney for Diamond Sports Group said the RSN would be taking, “A single telecast rights agreement, that of the Atlanta Braves. All of the other teams, all of Major League Baseball’s other agreements, will be rejected under the plan. To be clear, rejecting these teams is not our preferred path. Our preferred plan is to bring as many teams into the reorganized [company’s] fold as possible.”

With the prevalence of cord-cutting among other factors, Diamond Sports Group has been saddled with a large debt load since Sinclair Broadcasting acquired the RSN’s from Disney (via Fox Sports) in 2019. (The Diamond Sports Group RSN’s was branded as Bally Sports in 2020.) With the loss of subscriber fees, the revenue continues to decline, resulting in Diamond Sports filing for bankruptcy protection in March 2023. With the surprise announcement, DSG wants their payment structure with the eight MLB franchises renegotiated to factor in the current market place situation. Hence, for the 2025 MLB season, other than the Atlanta Braves, DSG will not be honoring any payment agreement. The announcement comes at a time when DSG has been reorganizing as they seek to emerge from bankruptcy.

In a statement, a Diamond Sports spokesperson noted, “Today marks an important step forward for Diamond with the filing of a baseline plan to enable us to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable, go-forward business before year-end. We have delivered proposals to and remain in discussions with our MLB team partners around go-forward plans. We firmly believe that through our linear and digital offerings we have created the best economic and fan-friendly engine for all of our team partners.”

The MLB franchises impacted by DSG’s announcement are the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays. Also, the Milwaukee Brewers had been in its final season of a multi-year agreement and will be impacted. Three other teams; the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers had a short-term one-year agreement with DSG for the 2024 season. All four clubs have the option of either negotiating a new agreement with DSG or seeking other distribution solutions.

Goldman said, “For many of these clubs, we’ve got proposals out, we have provided significant diligence and projections, and our management team has had live discussions with every one of those clubs. But at the end of the day, the amended plan now puts the decision in the clubs’ hands.”

Throughout the bankruptcy hearings, MLB has been at odds with DSG claiming their lack of transparency. In the court hearing, James Bromley. an MLB attorney said, the league had been “blindsided”, which DSG refutes. Bromley told the Athletic, “We have no information about what is being done. We’ve had no opportunity to review [the materials], and now we’re in front of the court and being asked to make our comments. The idea that we’re supposed to be able to turn on a dime … is simply inconsistent with reality.” Bromley added that he knew of the “Braves-only” plan just 75 minutes prior to the start of the hearing.

In May 2023 DSG dropped the San Diego Padres, defaulting on most of their annual payment fees of a reported $78.9 million. Two months later the RSN dropped the Arizona Diamondbacks. As a replacement, MLB produced the games and distributed the games locally. In 2024 MLB took over production of Colorado Rockies games previously televised on the defunct AT&T SportsNet. Some franchises in other sports that had RSN coverage have opted for a hybrid local broadcast and streaming video to distribute games.

During the 2024 season, DSG doled out nearly $800 million for the rights to 12 MLB franchises. During the season the payments ranged from a low of $33 million for Milwaukee Brewers to $125 million for the Los Angeles Angels. Ironically, the Atlanta Braves is at the higher end among payment fees. Local media payments account for about 20% of a team’s total revenue.

There are five MLB teams televised by Bally Sports; the Cincinnati Red, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, that have a joint venture agreement with DSG and have not been a part of the bankruptcy hearings. For example, the St. Louis Cardinals have a 30% stake in Bally Sports Midwest, and the Los Angeles Angels own a 25% stake in Bally Sports West. If DSG drops these franchises there is the possibility that the RSN could face legal action. The San Diego Padres had also been a joint venture team and left DSG without any legal action.

As the RSN business model collapses, Rob Manfred, the MLB commissioner, has expressed an interest in adding the local media rights as part of a national media strategy. Under that scenario, MLB would be in charge of producing and distributing local teams. Manford has noted the success of the Padres in transitioning from Bally Sports to MLB.TV.

As part of their plans to eradicate themselves from bankruptcy, in August, DSG announced they had reached an agreement to televise and stream the local games of 13 NBA franchises and nine NHL franchises for the 2024-25 season. In the event that DSG is unable to exit bankruptcy, the agreements will expire at the end of the 2024-25 season. If DSG’s plans get approved the agreements will be renewed after the 2024-25 season.

Sportico reports with the new agreement, DSG’s payment fees for the NBA teams dropped by 30%-40% and about 20% for the NHL teams. As part of restructuring, DSG will no longer televise the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks locally. In July, the NHL’s Dallas Stars had dropped Bally Sports and launched its own DTC app called Victory+. On September 3 the bankruptcy court approved the plan.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez who has presided over the hearings has scheduled a follow-up hearing on October 9. A final hearing on DSG’s reorganization plans is set for November 14.