A reported $150 million investment in the Diamond Sports Group by Amazon has been turned down by Major League Baseball.
Per the New York Post, MLB declined the deal that would have granted Amazon streaming rights for 11 teams, in part because the deal would have lasted multiple years and would have required MLB to grant the remaining streaming rights for Diamond teams to Amazon.
“They rejected it because Amazon wanted a streaming deal for more than one year,” the source told The Post.
“Manfred said if you want a digital deal it will be with us.”
The potential investment, reported last month by the Wall Street Journal, would have led to Amazon becoming the streaming provider for Diamond’s RSNs. However, Diamond only owns the streaming rights to five MLB teams (Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Tigers), and MLB wasn’t willing to sell the rights to the other six teams (Angels, Braves, Cardinals, Guardians, Rangers, Reds) to Amazon as part of the investment in Diamond.
In this week’s latest bankruptcy hearing, MLB is expected to offer Diamond a deal that will allow the company to pay lower rights fees to three teams in 2024 in exchange for the digital rights to all 11 teams beginning in 2025.
The NBA struck a similar deal with Diamond in November, cutting rights fees this season in exchange for rights being released back to the league after the ongoing 2023-24 season. The NHL followed the same path last month.
