MLB will broadcast San Diego Padres games after Diamond Sports stops payments

MLB will broadcast San Diego Padres games after Diamond Sports stops payments


Daniel Camerena #72 of the San Diego Padres hits a grand slam home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against Washington Nationals at PETCO Park on July 8, 2021 in San Diego, California.

Denis Poroy | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

The San Diego Padres have a new home base on TV.

Major League Baseball will broadcast and produce the team’s local games beginning on Wednesday, after the owner of Bally Sports San Diego, its regional sports network for local in-market games, dropped the team.

Diamond Sports, which filed for bankruptcy in March, said its Bally Sports San Diego would air its last Padres game on Tuesday after it opted not to make further rights payments to the team. The move comes as Diamond Sports pushes for the direct-to-consumer streaming rights for all MLB teams that air on its regional sports networks.

“MLB has forced our hand by its continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights,” a Diamond spokesperson said in a statement. The company has noted that it has significant liquidity and is still able to make rights payments and air other MLB teams in its portfolio.

MLB announced it would take over beginning with the Padres game against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. Fans in the Padres’ market will be able to watch games on cable TV or through the league’s MLB.TV streaming app for $19.99 a month or $74.99 for the rest of the season.

“As Commissioner Manfred previously stated, Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute Padres games to fans throughout Padres territory,” said Noah Garden, MLB chief revenue officer, in a release.  “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with the Club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Padres games by more than 2 million homes.”

The MLB takeover means that local Padres games will no longer be subject to a blackout on MLB.TV, as is the case for other local teams. MLB added it would make games free through June 4 with a MLB login at MLB.com, Padres.com or in MLB apps.

On cable TV, Padres games will be available through four providers — Charter Communications‘ Spectrum, Cox Communications, DirecTV and AT&T U-verse. MLB said it would increase the reach of local Padres games from about 1.13 million homes to roughly 3.3 million homes.

Bally Sports San Diego is backed by a joint ownership between Diamond and the team. The Padres signed a 20-year, $1.2 billion contract with Fox Sports in 2012.

When Disney acquired assets from Fox, it had to offload the Fox Sports networks. Disney sold the networks, later rebranded as Bally Sports, to Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2019 for $10.6 billion, which included roughly $8 billion in debt.

The debt load has hobbled the networks since then. Diamond is now an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair.

Streaming rights for MLB teams have been a particular sticking point between Diamond Sports and the league for some time now. While Diamond Sports had obtained streaming rights for all NBA and NHL teams that it airs on its regional sports networks, it had been working on a team-by-team basis in the MLB.

In earlier months, Diamond had skipped payments for other MLB teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, in a push to obtain the streaming rights. Diamond owns 19 regional sports networks under the Bally Sports brand.

Diamond was forced earlier in the bankruptcy case to make partial payments to the teams it had stopped paying.



Source

Levi Strauss raises sales guidance, says it will absorb some tariff costs for now
Business

Levi Strauss raises sales guidance, says it will absorb some tariff costs for now

Levi Strauss raised its full-year guidance Thursday and said it’s working to absorb some of the costs it’s facing from higher tariffs, but that could change as President Donald Trump’s trade policy evolves.  The denim maker doesn’t disclose its key manufacturing hubs, but much of its supply comes from Southeast Asia. Many countries in the […]

Read More
IMAX is headed for its best year on record as it capitalizes on Hollywood’s box office rebound
Business

IMAX is headed for its best year on record as it capitalizes on Hollywood’s box office rebound

General atmosphere during an IMAX private screening for the movie “First Man” at an AMC theater in New York City on Oct. 10, 2018. Lars Niki | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images More than a year before “F1: The Movie” would eventually hit theaters, Apple struck a deal with IMAX. The studio secured the […]

Read More
How Iconiq, the wealth firm backed by Mark Zuckerberg, brings ultra-rich philanthropists together
Business

How Iconiq, the wealth firm backed by Mark Zuckerberg, brings ultra-rich philanthropists together

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Square CEO Jack Dorsey. Manuel Orbegozo | Handout | Reuters A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Even as tax changes may reduce giving by […]

Read More