The Diamond Sports bankruptcy is settled. Where does this leave MLB teams for local TV?

I’ve been covering the continuing saga of the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports, which at one time had rights to about half of MLB teams’ local broadcasts, for some time.

Evan Drellich of the Athletic reported last week that the bankruptcy case was settled, and that will leave six teams in Diamond’s portfolio for the 2025 season.

From the article, and as a reminder, here’s how we got into this mess in the first place:

Diamond’s arrival in bankruptcy arguably began the moment the company was created.

In 2018, Disney bought 21st Century Fox, but the Department of Justice stepped in because Disney, which already owned ESPN, was newly acquiring 22 sports stations. Disney agreed to sell the channels.

The next year, the broadcasting company Sinclair bought the networks in a deal that valued the networks at $10.6 billion with an aggregate purchase price of $9.6 billion. At the time, the collection of networks was branded as “FOX Sports” and carried 42 professional teams among them: 14 in MLB, 16 in the NBA and 12 in the NHL.

The problems were many. First, Diamond’s purchase was highly leveraged (about 80 percent borrowed money) and second, it happened right at the time when a lot of broadcasting — sports and otherwise — was headed to streaming as people cut cable cords. Thus there was less money coming into these RSNs to pay rights fees they had signed deals for.

Six MLB teams (Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays) will remain on Diamond Sports for 2025. Their channels, previously branded “Bally Sports Network,” will be rebranded “Fan Duel Sports Network,” as if we needed any more evidence of gambling overrunning baseball.

In addition to remaining on whatever cable/satellite operators these channels now have deals with, they will also have in-market streaming options available, some of which will be through Amazon Prime. An additional fee will apply, as well as MLB’s blackout rules.

Some of these teams will make significantly less money from their new deals. The Reds, for example:

The Reds’ previous deal was believed to be worth roughly $60 million per year in revenue. Sources had expected at least a 20 percent reduction in that rights fee under a renegotiated contract with DSG and perhaps 50 percent or more with MLB — the latter viewed as a more stable option even with more uncertainty built into the model. Revenues within this model are not based on a rights fee but instead accumulated income based on such sources as subscriber fees and advertising.

The Reds are one of seven teams whose games will be produced by what is now being called MLB Local Media.

Here are the local TV choices for all 30 teams for 2025. Some of the revenue numbers cited are from this MLB Trade Rumors article; others are as noted.

NL EAST

Braves: Re-upped with Diamond Sports. Made about $71 million in local TV revenue in 2024.

Marlins: Re-upped with Diamond Sports. Made about $50 million in local TV revenue in 2024.

Mets: SNY is a regional sports network that was at one time partly owned by the team, as it was started by then-owner Fred Wilpon. When the Mets were sold, Wilpon’s Sterling Equities retained majority ownership in SNY. MLBTR says the Mets were paid a $88 million rights fee in 2022.

Phillies: They remain on NBC Sports Philadelphia and own 25 percent of the channel. TV revenue from 2022 was reported as $125 million.

Nationals: They and the Orioles co-own MASN, a RSN that carries both teams’ games. 2022 TV revenue: $61 million.

NL CENTRAL

Brewers: They will be part of MLB Local Media in 2025, available on cable/satellite and in-market streaming. Their 2022 local TV revenue from their previous Diamond Sports RSN was reported at $33 million and averaged about $34 million over the life of that deal.

Cubs: The Cubs own 50 percent of Marquee Sports Network. The other half is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting — a separate company from Diamond Sports. In 2022 Marquee was reported to have made $99 million in revenue for the team.

Cardinals: The Cardinals previously re-upped with Diamond, as I reported recently. MLBTR says their 2024 TV revenue was about $73 million, but in that article I quoted an article from The Athletic in which Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III said that a revenue drop from this deal would be “north of 20 percent.” The article linked above about the Reds says:

The division-rival Cardinals, by contrast, accepted a three-year, renegotiated deal with DSG that reportedly cut about 25 percent from the original rights-fee value of more than $75 million annually.

Reds: Re-upped with Diamond Sports. They were expected to get about $60 million in local TV revenue for 2024.

Pirates: They have a joint venture with the Penguins called SportsNet Pittsburgh, which began this past season. The Pirates had about $50-$60 million in TV revenue in 2023, which several sources said was “expected” to drop in 2024.

NL WEST

Diamondbacks: They are one of the teams whose rights went to MLB Local Media last year. These broadcasts are produced by MLB Network. Their previous RSN deal provided $68 million in revenue. It’s not clear what they’re getting under this new agreement, which has the games on local TV as well as in-market streaming.

Dodgers: The Dodgers just finished the 10th year of a 25-year agreement that created SportsNet LA, and they are co-owners of the channel. That deal is paying the Dodgers $8.35 billion in total, and it runs through 2039. They got $196 million from this agreement in 2022, the last year figures are available, though this says that number was the same in 2024.

Giants: Their games are on NBC Sports Bay Area, which is co-owned by NBCUniversal and the Giants. It provided $92 million of revenue to the Giants in 2022.

Padres: Similar deal to the Diamondbacks. They were reported to have 40,000 signed up for their in-market streaming option in 2024. They’re also on local TV in the San Diego market. All of this gave them just a small fraction of their previous TV revenue — just $17 million in 2024.

Rockies: A channel called ROCKIES.TV was formed as part of MLB Local Media, which can be seen on cable/satellite in-market, as well as viewed by in-market streaming. Their 2023 local TV revenue was reported as $57 million. Several reports, including this one, indicate that revenue dropped in 2024 and payroll will be lowered in 2025 as a result.

AL EAST

Blue Jays: The team is owned by Rogers Communications, the largest cable operator in Canada, which carries their games. The MLBTR article says: “All broadcast revenues unreported.”

Orioles: See above, they co-own MASN with the Nationals.

Rays: Re-upped with Diamond Sports. Their local TV revenue for 2022 was about $56 million.

Red Sox: They are co-owners of NESN, and were reported to have had $97 million of TV revenue in 2022.

Yankees: They are co-owners of YES Network, and were reported to have had $143 million of TV revenue in 2022.

AL CENTRAL

Guardians: Now part of MLB Local Media, they’ll be available in-market by cable/satellite as well as in-market streaming. 2023 revenue from their previous Diamond Sports channel was about $55 million.

Royals: At the moment they don’t have a TV deal for 2025, as reported by our colleagues at Royals Review. Their choices appear to be: Re-up with Diamond Sports, or go to MLB Local Media. They’re hoping for a deal this week. They made $45 million in local TV revenues in 2024.

Tigers: Re-upped with Diamond Sports. 2022 local TV revenue: $60 million. This article says that fee is likely going to be “reduced” for 2025.

Twins: They had re-upped with Diamond at a significant revenue cut for 2024, estimated to be about $25 million less than 2023, which reduced team payroll. For 2025, they’ll be part of MLB Local Media.

White Sox: They could have a dilemma for 2025. After 2024, their channel NBC Sports Chicago ceased to exist and the Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks started a new channel called Chicago Sports Network (CHSN), jointly owned by the three teams. Unfortunately, CHSN has yet to sign a deal with Comcast, which serves more than 50 percent of the in-market homes. So, many in the Chicago market can’t currently see Blackhawks or Bulls games, though CHSN is giving the product away on two free over-the-air digital subchannels. Some viewers have had trouble viewing those channels, though. Just last week CHSN announced an in-market streaming option which will cost $19.99 a month for one team or $29.99 a month for all three. (Cue the jokes about it not being worth 29 cents to watch those three teams right now.)

The Sox have time, since it’s several months before their first regular-season game. It seems likely they and Comcast will come to an agreement at some point. How much revenue the Sox will make here is unclear. In 2022 they got $60 million from NBC Sports Chicago.

AL WEST

Angels: Re-upped with Diamond Sports. Their 2023 TV revenue was reported as approximately $125 million.

Astros: They have a joint venture with the Houston Rockets called Space City Home Network that launched in 2024. They had $73 million in revenues from their previous RSN in 2023.

Athletics: They had a deal with NBC Sports California that was supposed to terminate if the A’s moved out of the Bay Area, but upon the A’s making a three-year deal to play in Sacramento, that deal was re-worked and that channel will continue to carry A’s games. The linked article says “the A’s are expected to still capture a significant portion of their local rights fee, which was $67 million last year.”

Mariners: They now own 100 percent of their RSN, ROOT Sports Northwest. In 2022 they were reported as having $100 million of local TV revenues.

Rangers: They left Diamond Sports and it was reported in October that they were looking into starting their own RSN, though nothing is finalized yet. They were reported to have $100 million in local TV revenue in 2024.

In summary, for the 30 MLB teams:

• Seven teams are now part of MLB Local Media (Brewers, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, Reds, Rockies, Twins)
• Six teams are on an RSN in which they have a partial ownership interest (Cubs, Dodgers, Nationals, Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees)
• Six teams are still with Diamond Sports (Angels, Braves, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Tigers)
• Three teams remain on NBC Sports RSNs (A’s, Giants, Phillies)
• Three teams have joint RSN ventures with teams in other sports (Astros, Pirates, White Sox)
• Two teams have a 100 percent ownership interest in their RSN (Blue Jays, Mariners)
• Two teams are TBD (Rangers, Royals)
• One team is on an RSN in which they do not have an ownership interest (Mets)

In the end, as Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated, he’d love to see MLB have all the local TV rights, produce all the games, and have them available on one platform where there would be no blackouts of any games. Of note might be the three-year deal the Cardinals signed to re-up with Diamond Sports:

The three-year length may not be coincidental.

MLB’s national TV contracts expire on the same timeline. MLB and half or more of its clubs might find negotiating strength toward recouping some of the short-term losses by joining in a larger bloc of teams selling various content packages to streaming and cable outlets at that time.

That might… actually work. These “legacy” cable/satellite RSN deals are vestiges of a 1980s/1990s business model that worked as long as cable systems retained a lot of customers, something that’s no longer true. Eventually, along with other forms of TV entertainment, MLB games are likely eventually going to move to an all-streaming model, I’d think. Which will work until… the next form of television comes along.

As always, we await developments.