As the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy saga continues to play out, we are finally heading towards what looks like a conclusion. This week it was revealed through the courts that Diamond would televise games for 11 NHL teams on their local Bally Sports Regional Networks through the end of the 2023-2024 regular season before local rights revert back to the league for the 2024-2025 season.
Awful Announcing contributor Daniel Kaplan reported the news on Twitter.
Bally Sports Regional Networks has reached a deal with the 11 NHL clubs it has media rights for to televise their games through the end of this season, a new bankruptcy court filing discloses. The rights at the end of the season would then transfer to the league
— Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) December 20, 2023
The 11 teams in question are the Hurricanes, Panthers, Lightning, Blue Jackets, Red Wings, Predators, Blues, Wild, Stars, Ducks, and Kings. And the NHL seems happy with the resolution in a quote given to The Athletic:
“It’s a resolution that we are comfortable with in light of the totality of circumstances,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic in an email exchange. “It ensures that all our teams will be able to continue to broadcast their games to local fans throughout the balance of the season. That has always been our top priority.”
The NHL-Diamond agreement is pretty much the exact same plan the company has laid out for the NBA where 13 teams who still have local games televised on Bally Sports networks secured their future on television for the remainder of this regular season before rights return to the league. As for MLB, Diamond has agreements to pay all but three teams currently on their books – the Twins, Guardians, and Rangers – for the 2024 season.
All of these short-term agreements at least give some short-term security for the leagues, teams, and fans in question so that they will not have to see coverage of their teams interrupted or change dramatically during the regular season in any way. As far as the future for Diamond Sports and the Bally Networks go, the bankruptcy proceedings are still ongoing with reports that Amazon could get involved in local sports rights.
