Diamond Sports now has ‘good chance’ of walking away from Padres, per report
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports there's a "good chance" Diamond doesn't make their next Padres payment on May 30, which would cause a rights reversion.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports there's a "good chance" Diamond doesn't make their next Padres payment on May 30, which would cause a rights reversion.
"Nobody is surprised by this lawsuit and it will not stop the Phoenix Suns and Mercury from making our games available to as many people as we possibly can."
The Suns and Mercury have their games headed to broadcast TV. Those games will also be available direct-to-consumer.
AA has confirmed that Diamond Sports has made the four 50 percent payments as ordered by a court.
"Where we think there’s a fit with our local footprint and league or a series of teams, we’re absolutely ready to do a deal."
"It’s a great business model when a whole bunch of people pay for something they don’t really care if they have or not, which is what the cable bundle did for us. It’s hard to replicate that."
MLB is asking for a court order to have Diamond pay the Twins and Guardians by April 13 or relinquish their rights.
The Padres aren't free from Diamond Sports yet, but could be next week.
Diamond Sports initially said they hadn't made a Diamondbacks payment to preserve "flexibility" during a grace period. But that grace period has now run out, and that sends their bankruptcy proceedings in a notable new direction.
It's all going to come down to streaming.
Is Diamond going to start dumping teams?
New MLB local media department executives Doug Johnson, Greg Pennell, and Kendall Burgess all have long RSN experience.
“We see the right live sports as an unparalleled opportunity to drive the value of our linear television streams even higher."