Diamond Sports drops Raycom-produced ACC games from Bally Sports RSNs

A variety of ACC basketball and football games will have new homes in each sport’s upcoming season.

Per NextTV, the package of Raycom-produced ACC basketball and football basketball games will no longer be on the Diamond Sports-owned Bally Sports RSNs. Raycom indicated its desire to move on from the Bally RSNs prior to Diamond’s bankruptcy filing in March, and the company was amenable and ceased paying Raycom.

A motion was filed on Wednesday to reject the contract with Raycom for the ACC games.

On Wednesday, Diamond’s lawyers filed a motion signaling an official rejection of the ACC contract. 

Unlike the awkwardly hostile language between Major League Baseball and Sinclair/Diamond, the separation with Raycom sounds amicable. 

“Recently, Raycom requested that the Debtors promptly reject the Raycom Agreement so that Raycom could initiate the process of seeking a new partner for broadcasting future ACC events,” reads the court motion. “The parties’ respective counsel have worked closely with one another in preparing this motion, and Raycom supports the relief requested in this motion.”

Raycom Media, the parent company of Raycom Sports, was purchased by Gray Television several years ago.

The package of Raycom-produced games on the Bally Sports RSNs began to dwindle last summer, when several early round women’s basketball and baseball tournament games were shifted to ACC Network.

As for possible homes for this package, which include a dozen or so football games, two dozen women’s basketball games, and over 40 men’s basketball games, looping it back into the ESPN umbrella as an ESPN+ exclusive makes sense. Because of Gray’s ownership of Raycom, I can’t see the package being sold to one of Gray’s rivals like Nexstar or Scripps for use on The CW or ION. Gray could also hold on to the package to air on the stations it owns, but they could run into conflicts with national programming on affiliates.

This actually feels like a reasonable decision from Diamond. The ACC games provided inventory for the networks, but they weren’t cornerstone content that Diamond couldn’t live without, especially with costs spiraling out of control.

[NextTV]