The Royals announced today that have signed a new deal with Diamond Sports Group, owner of the FanDuel Sports Network, formerly known as Bally’s. That company will continue to broadcast the club’s games in 2025.
Coming into today, the Royals were one of the few clubs with their broadcast situation still up in the air. Diamond Sports Group was the broadcaster for almost half the league as of a few years ago, but cord cutting put a dent in the regional sports network (RSN) model. They filed for bankruptcy in March of 2023 and their profile has been decreasing since then.
As part of the bankruptcy process, Diamond dropped its deals with the Padres and Diamondbacks, leaving Major League Baseball to take over those broadcasts for the 2024 season. That still left Diamond with 12 clubs in 2024 but they revealed in court two months ago that they were only planning to keep one of those clubs for 2025, which was Atlanta.
Of the other 11, four of them followed the Padres and Diamondbacks in having MLB handle the broadcasts: the Brewers, Twins, Guardians and Reds. Six worked out new deals with Diamond, reportedly or presumedly with lower fees than their previous deals: the Marlins, Cardinals, Angels, Rays, Tigers and now the Royals. That leaves the Rangers as the final team in limbo. They reportedly aren’t going to return to Diamond but are looking into creating their own RSN, though it’s still unknown if they will be able to get that off the ground for the new season.
Diamond emerged from bankruptcy last month but it’s still unclear what the long-term relationship with Major League Baseball will be. It has been reported that none of the new Diamond deals go beyond 2028, with the league considering various plans for future broadcast deals. Per Anne Rogers of MLB.com, the Royals will have the chance to re-evaluate their Diamond deal after 2025, so it seems it’s only a one-year pact or perhaps has some kind of opt-out language.
Like the other clubs who re-upped with Diamond, the Royals are going to be receiving less revenue from this new pact than they did previously. As recently as 2022, they reportedly received $45MM for their annual rights fees but president of business operations Brooks Sherman confirmed today that the revenue will be lower in this new deal without providing specific, per Rogers.
How that impacts the club’s offseason remains to be seen. They were quite aggressive last winter, signing players like Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, as well as giving a huge extension to Bobby Witt Jr. That aggression paid off, with the Royals going from 56 wins in 2023 to 86 in 2024, good enough for a Wild Card spot. RosterResource currently projects the Royals for a $116MM payroll next year, very close to where they were in 2024. The club recently added Jonathan India via trade and is reportedly looking for another lineup addition with a preference for the trade market over free agency.
For fans, it seems little will change. The games will still be on television as before and those who streamed via the Bally Sports app will just have to switch to the FanDuel Sports Network app. There’s also now the added option of streaming via an add-on to Amazon Prime, which is the case with all clubs who have deals with Diamond.
That’s my team. Earning less money.
Getting the same money, just for only one more year instead of 10.
A fiasco and everyone outside a dozen or so teams knows it.
Most of these tv deals clubs are getting 20 to 25 million less then before this includes mlb as well.
I am glad the Padres broke away from Diamond Sports.
I doubt Diamond Sports will survive even after bankruptcy.
That is exactly why most of the deals DSG signed this offseason are for only 2025. A few are through 2028, but none go past that. MLB and the Braves said in their final briefs of the bankruptcy hearing that they didn’t see any way DSG survived beyond 2025.
Almost unfair that the Dodgers have an 8 billion tv deal.
“Almost unfair”…It’s not the Dodger’s fault they play in possibly the most populous region in the world. They used to play in Brooklyn and obviously saw more opportunity in SoCal so they moved.
I’m a Dodgers fan
“Diamond Sports Group was the broadcaster for almost half the league as of a few years ago, but cord-cutting put a dent in the regional sports network (RSN) model.”
Cord-cutting, huh? How could the people running the game not see this coming? And we know the problems don’t end there.
They did see it coming. Manfred mentioned it at the Winter Meetings in 2021 and 2022. He was exceedingly happy about the RSN’s going bankrupt both times. I had never seen Manfred with an ear to ear grin and nearly giggling with glee until he talked about this situation in 2022. Go back and watch him on MLB Network from that Winter Meeting.
The Royals are getting paid the same $48 million they would have under the agreement they had with DSG/Sinclair before, it just ends after 2025 instead of 2035.
I doubt that. All tv deals clubs are getting less. How come the twins in 2024 cut payroll near 30 million? Trust me teams are making cuts because of less money from tv deals 2024 and 2025 .
How come 7 of the 11 teams are raising payroll? The Padres knew they would be losing theirs in 2023 and had a record payroll of $291 million that season. Maybe its because MLB teams are NOT losing revenue.
DSG filed for BK because these deals were so underwater and they were losing money on them.
It doesn’t take a mental giant to know what directions these dollar figures went in.
And again you are wrong. DSG was losing money because they took on too much debt, not because the contracts were underwater. All you have to do is read their OWN filings in the bankruptcy case to know that. They are STILL in too much debt. Which is exactly why no team is under contract past 2028 and most, like the Royals, only through 2025.
Sweet!!
Signed
Twins fans
You need an editor. 2025 not 2024
So how will we end up watching the Rangers in 2025?