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MLB To Take Over Broadcasts For Twins, Guardians, Brewers In 2025

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Major League Baseball announced that it will take over the distribution of local broadcasts for the Twins, Guardians and Brewers in 2025. All three of those clubs previously had deals with Diamond Sports Group, which owns the Bally Sports Networks. But those deals all expired after 2024 and it was reported this week that Diamond is planning to make cutbacks to the number of teams on its slate of baseball broadcasts.

MLB will now be handling the broadcasts of at least six clubs, as it was already distributing for the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies. Fans will be able to sign up for direct-to-consumer streaming packages without blackouts, except for games that are being broadcasted nationally. The Rangers also saw their Diamond deal expire in 2024 but seem to be in a different situation for now. MLB announced that Texas wouldn’t be continuing with Diamond but are exploring local options for 2025.

The Regional Sports Network model has been decaying for many years and this news is latest part of the crumbling. For years, broadcasters would pay clubs for the right to have exclusive local broadcasting rights, which would often lead to frustration among fans. Baseball games were harder to access and some fans found themselves in the blackout areas of multiple different teams. However, these deals were a significant source of annual revenue for teams.

But as consumers cut cords and move away from buying cable packages, the model has been less effective and several deals have already fallen apart. Diamond has been going through the bankruptcy process since early in 2023. As mentioned, the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies didn’t have a local broadcasting deal for 2024. The Padres and Diamondbacks had previously been with Diamond while the Rockies were with AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. Fans in those markets were able to pay MLB directly to watch the team in 2024, with no blackouts, for $19.99 per month or $99.99 for the year. Dan Hayes of The Athletic relays on X that the Twins will be charging a similar price next year.

While that was a nice development for many fans, it wasn’t good for the teams. By all accounts, the revenue generated from this model is lower than what the clubs were previously receiving from the cable model, as the latter led to a passive stream of revenue from fans who signed up for cable packages but didn’t watch much or any baseball. The direct-to-consumer model cuts out the middleman but is dependent on active fan interest.

The MLB announcement today says that the “reach” of the Guardians via RSN was 1.45 million homes, with the Twins at 1.08 million. The league relays that between four and five million homes will now have access to their local clubs via these streaming options, but not all of them will sign up and it’s unclear what sort of rates are to be expected. Twins president Dave St. Peter expects the club to receive less broadcast revenue in 2025, per Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic on X, though he added that he expects greater revenue in the future.

In short, the move is good for fans in terms of simply watching the games. But since it’s bad for the teams on the business side, it could have spillover effects into roster construction. Last offseason, declining broadcast revenue seemed to have significant ripple effects in terms of transactions. The Padres trading Juan Soto to the Yankees, for instance, seemed to be motivated by the Friars needing to make budget cuts. Teams like the Rangers, Twins and others either cut their payrolls or didn’t raise them as much as expected, which led to certain free agents having fewer suitors than anticipated and a weak market for free agents in general.

Whether this will have an immediate impact on the decisions of the Twins, Guardians and Brewers will remain to be seen. The Twins already cut their payroll significantly a year ago in the wake of uncertainty with Diamond. There was seemingly some chance of the deal collapsing before the Twins re-signed for another year but with reduced fees. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the payroll went from $154MM in 2023 to $127MM in 2024. Per recent reporting, the club isn’t planning further payroll cuts but it doesn’t appear as though an increase is coming either. Per Gleeman on X, St. Peter doesn’t think this news impacts the payroll relative to those recent reports as the club already knew this was coming.

The Rangers appear to be exploring a different path. Last month, it was reported by Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal that the club is looking into developing their own direct-to-consumer streaming service, independent of MLB. Presumably, the benefit to handling it themselves would mean they reap more direct revenue, but they would also spend more on the day-to-day costs of running the operation. If they eventually find this path too challenging, it seems fair to assume that letting MLB take over would be a fallback option.

Uncertainty around the broadcast situation seemed to impact the Rangers last year. Though they won the 2023 World Series, they followed that up with a relatively modest offseason, not signing any deals larger than the two years and $22MM they gave to Tyler Mahle. How their current plan will play out perhaps has even less certainty than the other three clubs, so it will be an interesting situation to watch.

There will be other long-term questions to be answered in time. Commissioner Rob Manfred intends to market a streaming package consisting of multiple teams at some point in the future, perhaps as soon as 2025. MLB.TV has existed for years but with consumers affected by local blackout rules. The idea going forward would be to essentially make a blackout-free version of MLB.TV. There would be complications in such a plan, as clubs like the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs and others handle their own games via broadcasters that are at least partially owned by the team. Given their relatively stable footing, they would have less interest in joining such a plan with the other clubs.

As for Diamond, they had deals with 12 clubs in 2024. It was recently revealed that they are only fully committed to one for 2025, which is Atlanta. As part of that reporting last week, Diamond was apparently willing to renegotiate with other clubs but wanted to pay reduced fees. It seems that won’t happen with the four clubs mentioned in today’s announcement, so the Diamond slate will be down to a maximum of eight clubs in 2025 but perhaps that will go even lower of some others decide to make a deal like this with MLB instead.

Diamond Sports Group Planning To Cut Ties With 11 MLB Clubs

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Diamond Sports Group said in court today that it plans to broadcast just one MLB club next year, the Braves, per reporting from Evan Drellich of The Athletic. The company, which owns the Bally Sports Networks, also had deals with the Reds, Tigers, Royals, Angels, Marlins, Cardinals, Rays but plans on walking away from those. As Drellich notes, as part of the company’s ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, they can accept and reject contracts though the measures have to be approved by the court. The Brewers, Guardians, Twins and Rangers had one-year deals with Diamond for 2024. Those 11 clubs will now have to renegotiate new deals with Diamond or find other broadcasting arrangements.

Drellich provides some more specifics on X, noting that it’s more complicated than Diamond simply abandoning these 11 clubs, but that seems to be the company’s goal regardless. Alden González of ESPN adds some more details, noting that a confirmation hearing has been set for November 14 and 15 in Houston. The Marlins and Diamond have mutual interest in working out a new deal, per a report from Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The Angels are working on a new deal with Diamond, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Per Drellich, league representatives said they were “sandbagged” by the news. “We have no information about what is being done,” said Jim Bromley, lawyer for MLB. “We’ve had no opportunity to review and now we’re in front of the court and being asked to make our comments.”

The ongoing financial situation of Diamond Sports Group has been a significant part of baseball’s economic landscape for a long time and this could prove to be a major development as part of that narrative. Largely due to cord cutting, the regional sports network model has been gradually collapsing in recent history. In the 2022-23 offseason, reports emerged that Diamond was in rough shape financially and the company filed for bankruptcy before the 2023 MLB season began.

They dropped their contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during that 2023 campaign. It threatened to do the same with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers for 2024 but ultimately renegotiated lower fees with those clubs and continued those broadcasts through this year. Now it seems like the company is continuing down this path but with an even more aggressive severing of their existing ties to Major League Baseball.

This is bound to have short-term effects on clubs and players. These contracts have been sources of significant revenue for clubs, as MLBTR covered earlier this year. The 11 teams that Diamond plans to cut ties with were previously receiving between $33MM (Brewers) and $125MM (Angels) on an annual basis. Per reporting in April, the Padres were set to receive about $60MM in 2023 before their deal with Diamond collapsed. The league reportedly covered about 80% of those fees last year but didn’t plan to do so in 2024 and beyond.

Uncertainty around broadcast revenue seemingly played a major role in the 2023-24 offseason, which was disappointing for players. Teams like the Padres, Rangers, Twins and others were either cutting payroll or not increasing it as much as had previously been expected, with the TV situation often being used as justification. This appeared to play a role in various free agents not finding markets as strong as they had anticipated and many of them lingered unsigned into the early months of 2024 and/or signed for deals well below projections. It seems fair to expect that similar narratives could emerge in the coming winter.

Per González, a company source says that Diamond is still hoping to sign new deals with the 11 clubs being cut out today. However, that would presumably involve reduce fee payments, such as those received by the Guardians, Twins and Rangers this year. As mentioned up top, the Marlins and Angels seem to expect to continue their relationship with Diamond/Bally in 2025, though negotiating new deals may take some time.

In the long-term picture, MLB might be happy to be further cutting ties with Diamond. They have continually expressed skepticism about the company’s plans to stay afloat. Diamond has tried various methods of refinancing, including signing a streaming deal with Amazon, but the league hasn’t seemed convinced that any of the company’s plans would lead to long-term stability.

As mentioned, the league has already started selling some games to fans in direct-to-customer fashion. Commissioner Rob Manfred has aspirations of marketing a digital streaming package consisting of several MLB teams, which fans could watch without blackout restrictions. MLB.TV already exists and allows fans to watch most games, but the RSN deals lead to certain teams being blacked out in the areas covered by those deals.

Having less commitment with Diamond going forward will increase the viability of that streaming plan over the years to come. However, as mentioned, less TV revenue figures to have a sizeable impact on the short-term economics of the game. This will lead to ripple effects throughout the upcoming offseason and will likely be worrisome for certain players hitting the open market in the coming weeks. New deals could be negotiated between now and the 2025 season, which could put some money back on the table, though likely less than in previous years.

There is also the matter of the fan experience, as there were times in 2024 where the Braves were not available on TV to some customers during a dispute between Bally’s and Comcast. For fans of these 11 clubs today, they will have to keep an eye on the proceedings to determine if their favorite club will still be accessed in the ways they are accustomed to or if they will have to switch to some new broadcast model.

MLB, MLBPA Agree To Redirect CBT Money To Teams Losing TV Revenue

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MLB and the Players Association have agreed to a change to the collective bargaining agreement that’ll help teams whose television rights situations are uncertain. Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports that the league is now permitted to redirect its portion of competitive balance tax money to clubs that have lost TV revenue. Those teams can receive a maximum of $15MM or the necessary amount to compensate for their revenue drop.

Teams that exceed the competitive balance tax threshold are required to pay fees at the end of each season. The league and union split the money. The MLBPA’s portion funds its retirement accounts. That is unaffected by today’s agreement. The league now has the discretion to allocate some of its half of the money to clubs that have seen their TV revenues drop in either of the last two seasons. According to Drellich, the MLBPA projects the league’s half of the CBT payments to total around $150MM this year. Today’s agreement permits the commissioner’s office to distribute half that money to the teams affected by TV problems.

It’s a sensible arrangement for both parties. MLB gets more flexibility to support organizations that have lost some or all of a key revenue source in recent seasons. The union expects that’ll lead to a trickle-down benefit on player salaries. Last offseason, roughly a third of teams pointed to concerns about the long-term viability of their TV contracts as justification for limiting payroll raises or outright payroll cuts. Most of those organizations had contracts with Diamond Sports Group, which is trying to survive as it concludes a lengthy bankruptcy proceeding.

Diamond dropped its contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks midway through last season. This spring, it renegotiated its deals with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers at lesser fees after threatening to abandon those contracts. Texas had a quieter offseason than expected for a defending World Series champion. Minnesota sliced payroll over the winter and its ownership is reportedly still reluctant to take on money via deadline deals. AT&T Sports dropped its local TV deals with the Rockies, Pirates, Mariners and Astros last offseason. Pittsburgh, Seattle and Houston found alternate broadcasting arrangements (likely with reduced revenues), while MLB stepped in to handle Rockies broadcasts within market.

A good number of teams remain skeptical about the long-term future of their regional sports networks. Diamond is carrying 12 teams on its networks at least through the end of this season. MLB has made no secret of its wariness about the broadcaster’s viability for ’25 and beyond.

Diamond’s ongoing conflict with Xfinity hasn’t done it any favors in that regard. A contract dispute between the broadcaster and the carrier has kept Xfinity customers from watching any games on Diamond networks since May. Blackout restrictions prevent MLB from stepping in to handle in-market broadcasts, leaving a subset of fans without the ability to watch their teams for a couple months.

There was a positive development on that front this morning. An attorney for Diamond said at today’s bankruptcy hearing that DSG and Xfinity had made progress in negotiations and expected to finalize a new contract “in the very near term” (link via Alden González of ESPN).

Latest On Diamond Sports Group Bankruptcy

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Attorneys for MLB (as well as representatives for the NHL and NBA) fired their latest salvos at Diamond Sports Group during a Wednesday hearing in the broadcasting company’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Evan Drellich of the Athletic and Alden González of ESPN were among those to cover the developments.

The most recent source of frustration is Diamond’s stalled negotiations with Comcast (Xfinity). The sides didn’t reach agreement on a new contract before May 1, leading Comcast to pull Diamond’s Bally Sports channels off the air at the start of the month. That has left Xfinity subscribers without the ability to watch in-market games for the 12 teams carried by Diamond. (Diamond has reached agreements with each of Charter, DirecTV and Cox.)

That’s understandably irritating for both the impacted fans and the league itself. “We are coming into the middle of yet another season where Diamond is an undependable partner,” an attorney for MLB said in today’s hearing. “This is not a deal that Major League Baseball and its clubs have signed up for. … It’s been two full weeks since carriage has been dropped by Comcast, and there is not a word of when it might get picked up, and on what terms.”

MLB has not filed any formal objection with the court, and it’s not clear if they’re considering doing so. Yet the Diamond/Comcast dispute only adds to MLB’s longstanding questions about Diamond’s viability. DSG reached a restructuring/streaming deal with Amazon in an effort to sustain operations past 2024. MLB officials have made no secret of their skepticism about the long-term significance of that partnership.

Representatives for Diamond tried to assuage some of those concerns by telling the court they’re close to a naming rights deal that will change the Bally Sports moniker to a new brand for 2025 and beyond. An attorney for Diamond called the ongoing dispute with Xfinity “disappointing” but said the company “(remains) optimistic” the sides will be able to work an agreement.

The court still needs to formally approve Diamond’s restructuring plan to end the bankruptcy proceedings. The confirmation hearing is currently scheduled for June 18.

MLB, Roku In Talks Regarding Sunday Morning Broadcasts

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Major League Baseball is in “advanced talks” with the streaming company Roku about hosting Sunday morning broadcasts this season, writes Andrew Marchand of the Athletic. Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal first reported two weeks ago (on X) that Roku was a potential option to carry the Sunday morning games.

MLB introduced the Sunday morning game as part of a streaming deal with Peacock in 2022. The NBC streaming service walked away from that agreement a few weeks ago. Marchand writes that Peacock wanted to renegotiate the fee to pay the league roughly $10MM per season, well below the annual $30MM price it paid for the first two years. It isn’t how clear how much the Roku talks, if agreed upon, would pay the league.

Whatever the specifics, MLB evidently finds the negotiations with Roku more promising than Peacock’s recent offers had been. If talks between MLB and Roku result in a deal, the service would have exclusive broadcasting rights to a Sunday game starting at either 11:30 am or shortly after noon EDT. No other games would start before 1:30 pm that day, so the Roku game would be the sole contest for a couple hours. Peacock had 19 such broadcasts last year ranging from late April to early September. Marchand writes that Roku may take a reduced number — at least in 2024 — because five weeks of the season have already passed.

MLB has an ongoing partnership with Apple TV+ that broadcasts two Friday night games exclusively on that streaming service. That deal reportedly pays the league $85MM per season. The Roku deal would certainly be far less lucrative, reflecting both the different time slot and increased uncertainty about the broadcasting landscape.

The Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy made the future of regional sports networks a large storyline of the offseason. While the conglomerate survived to carry local broadcasts for 12 teams in 2024, questions remain about its long-term viability.

Diamond found itself back in the news this week after failing to reach agreement on a new deal with Comcast (link via ESPN’s Alden González). The distributor pulled Diamond’s Bally Sports networks off its channels as a result, leaving its subscribers without access to in-market broadcasting in cities where Diamond has the rights. MLB’s RSN deals with Diamond prevent the league from lifting blackouts for fans affected by the Diamond/Comcast dispute. That leaves fans affected with little recourse but to hope for Comcast and Diamond to eventually work out an agreement.

Latest On Padres, Diamond Sports Group

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11:38am: The second payout is evidently not all that significant. Sanders reports (on X) that the Padres will receive roughly $17MM in total from the settlement, indicating the remaining-asset value is roughly $6.5MM.

10:06am: There were minor developments in the long-running Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy proceedings this week. Most notable is the revelation of a deal that the broadcasting conglomerate struck with the Padres last summer.

As Daniel Kaplan of Awful Announcing first reported, Diamond agreed in July to a deal that could pay the San Diego organization as much as $78.9MM to resolve breach of contract claims which the Padres made after Diamond dropped the team’s TV deal last spring. The Padres initially sought a $162MM award as compensation for the lapsed television contract before agreeing to the lesser sum in mediation.

That money has not yet been paid. The settlement calls for an initial payment of roughly $10.5MM, followed by a second payout worth a maximum of $68.3MM that’ll be determined by calculating the remaining assets of that contract’s value after the Diamond/Padres RSN network is officially liquidated. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Diamond will owe the approximate $10.5MM payment by the middle of May. The timeline for the second sum is still not clear.

As part of the agreement, the Padres and Diamond agreed to drop all litigation against one another. The Friars have proceeded without an RSN deal since Diamond abandoned the contract. MLB has handled in-market broadcasting in San Diego via MLB.tv. The league covered 80% of what the Padres would’ve received — Sanders writes that the deal was valued around $60MM annually — for the 2023 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that the league would not cover lost rights fees for this year and beyond.

The Padres are one of two teams which Diamond had covered but abandoned midseason. The company did the same with the Diamondbacks a few weeks after dropping the San Diego deal. It is not known if Diamond has agreed to any kind of settlement with the Arizona franchise.

Diamond continues to hold local broadcasting rights for 12 teams: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Guardians, Marlins, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers and Twins. While it initially seemed as if Diamond would disband after the 2024 season, an influx of cash as part of a streaming partnership with Amazon has given the company confidence about its viability beyond this year. That’s not entirely shared by MLB, which continues to express skepticism about Diamond’s long-term prospects. The Atheltic’s Evan Drellich writes that the bankruptcy court has scheduled a hearing for June 18 on the company’s specific plans for its $450MM in financing from the Amazon deal.

Court Approves Portion Of Diamond Restructuring Agreement

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Bankruptcy judge Christopher Lopez has approved two parts of the restructuring deal for Diamond Sports Group, reports Anthony Crupi of Sportico. The judge signed off on the January agreement that raises $450MM in debtor financing and reaches a $495MM settlement with Sinclair Broadcasting Group to resolve litigation which Diamond had filed against its former parent company. ESPN’s Alden González tweets that resolution of the overall bankruptcy likely remains weeks or months away, but this marks an important seal of approval for the company.

The agreements provide a potential path for DSG to continue operating its regional sports networks beyond this year. As part of the restructuring, Diamond agreed to sell the streaming rights to the MLB, NHL and NBA teams that it possesses to Amazon. The latter figures to create some kind of package on its Prime Video service for an additional fee.

Attorneys for Diamond have expressed hope that the cash influx will be able to keep the corporation afloat. Before the Amazon deal, the expectation had been that Diamond would wind down its involvement in the RSN business and shutter its Bally Sports networks after the 2024 MLB season. Diamond believes that will no longer be necessary, although the company’s long-term viability is still the subject of skepticism among league officials.

Diamond has in-market broadcasting for 12 teams but only possesses streaming rights for five of them: the Royals, Tigers, Marlins, Brewers and Rays. It has reached agreements with all 12 teams that it carried through the end of last year — DSG dropped the Padres and Diamondbacks midseason — to remain on the Bally networks for 2024. The Guardians and Rangers took slightly reduced rights fees to prevent Diamond from dropping their deals; it is believed that the Twins had to do the same after their TV contract expired at the end of 2023.

Rob Manfred Discusses RSN Situation, Expansion Timeline

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Commissioner Rob Manfred covered a wide range of topics in yesterday’s press conference from the owners’ meetings. Along with comments on the Orioles’ sale agreement and the A’s ballpark plans in Las Vegas, he spoke of a desire to create an in-market streaming bundle as soon as next year.

“Realistically, my target to having a digital package I can take to market would be for the ’25 season,” the commissioner told reporters (link via Evan Drellich of the Athletic). The hope is to include at least 14 teams in a streaming bundle they can market directly to consumers without blackout restrictions.

MLB already makes out-of-market streaming for all 30 teams available via its MLB.TV platform. Most fans are unable to stream in-market games on MLB.TV because of restrictions in teams’ regional broadcasting contracts. With the RSN model on shaky ground for a number of clubs, MLB could be able to work around blackout issues for a number of organizations in the relatively near future.

The Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy provides the clearest avenue. Diamond has already dropped its deals with the Padres and Diamondbacks, putting the onus on MLB to handle those broadcasts. Meanwhile, AT&T abandoned its contracts with the Rockies, Astros, Pirates and Mariners this offseason. MLB is handling Colorado broadcasts this year. The Mariners, Astros and Pirates have all taken those responsibilities on their own, with the Astros and Pirates partnering with teams from other leagues in their respective cities as part of a new broadcasting arrangement.

Diamond is going to carry broadcasts for its remaining 12 teams in 2024. It is honoring its contracts in full with nine teams* and reached deals at slightly reduced rights fees to handle Rangers, Guardians and Twins broadcasts for another season. Drellich tweeted this morning that the bankruptcy court approved those contracts, as expected.

Whether Diamond will be able to maintain its operations beyond this year remains to be seen. The conglomerate is hopeful that it can stay in business after agreeing to sell whatever MLB, NHL and NBA streaming rights it possessed to Amazon in a deal that’ll bring in a short-term cash influx of $450MM. MLB officials have expressed some skepticism about that being enough to keep Diamond afloat for the long haul.

If Diamond were to collapse after next season, that’d revert the broadcasting rights for those 12 teams back to MLB. In addition to the three it already possesses and the potential to negotiate with Seattle, Houston, and Pittsburgh, the league could shop around two-thirds of its teams on an in-market streaming bundle by next year. MLB would likely have a harder time negotiating in-market streaming rights back from franchises like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs that are on stabler footing and handle distribution of their games on RSNs owned at least in part by the team.

Once there’s more clarity on the broadcasting situation, it seems the league will start laying the groundwork for a potential expansion process. “We’re going to have to get our footing on local media a little bit better. In times of uncertainty, it’s hard to talk about additional change,” Manfred said when asked about expansion (link via Jesse Rogers of ESPN). “Having said that, I have five years left. Those teams won’t be playing by the time I’m done but I would like the process along and [cities] selected.”

As Manfred indicated, his contract runs for another five seasons. The owners voted last July to extend his tenure until January 2029. While there’s little doubt they’d approve another extension if Manfred wanted to continue into the 2030s, his comments seem to suggest he could step away after this term.

That’d put the 2025-28 seasons as a loose timeline for the league to seriously evaluate options for moving from 30 to 32 teams. Manfred has previously made clear that there’d be no expansion consideration until the A’s and Rays stadium situations were sorted out. With those moving closer to resolution, albeit with plenty of controversy in the A’s case, expansion should be a more serious topic by the second half of the decade.

*Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Royals, and Tigers

Diamond Sports Group In Agreement With Rangers, Twins, Guardians For 2024

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Diamond Sports Group has an agreement in place with the Rangers, Twins and Guardians, meaning Bally will plan to broadcast the games of those clubs this year, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. The agreements are still pending court approval. The judge is expected to rule on these agreements February 9, per Alden González of ESPN. Drellich adds that the three clubs retain their streaming rights but each contract has a clause preventing them from doing anything with them this year.

“We are pleased to have reached agreements with the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers that work for all parties and enable us to continue delivering high-quality, live game broadcasts on Bally Sports to dedicated fans through the 2024 season,” reads a statement from a Diamond spokesperson, per Drellich.

The Guardians confirmed their agreement with a statement relayed by Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal. “We can confirm we have reached an agreement with Diamond Sports Group for the 2024 season,” the club statement reads. “That agreement is currently pending court approval.”

It was reported earlier this week that the league expected Diamond to work out new deals with each of those three clubs and it now seems that the agreements are in place. The Twins’ previous deal with Diamond expired at the end of 2023. The Rangers and Guardians still had contracts in place but Diamond threatened to abandon them as part of the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, citing them as unprofitable.

The details still aren’t known, but the reporting from earlier this week suggested the clubs would likely be paid at least 85% of what they were getting previously. The Guardians reportedly made $55MM from their deal in 2023 with the Rangers reportedly at $111MM. Even if they are going to get lower fees compared to the past, a new deal could at least give them some clarity over their 2024 finances, which could then impact how they proceed with roster moves in the coming weeks.

Not too long ago, it seemed as though Diamond was going to be abandoning live sports entirely after 2024. But a couple of weeks back, they announced a restructuring deal involving an investment from Amazon, a deal that Diamond believes can get it out of bankruptcy. If the bankruptcy court approves all of these details, Amazon will acquire the streaming rights of the Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers and Rays. Per González, the ruling on that restructuring deal is expected February 26, with Diamond then having until March 22 to finalize the details for presentation in court.

Diamond only had the streaming rights for those five clubs, meaning it couldn’t sell rights for the other clubs that it broadcasts on television. The Rangers, Twins and Guardians will retain their streaming rights but won’t be able to work out a new deal this year. For fans in those markets hoping for changes to the direct-to-consumer model, it seems they may have to wait another year, assuming everything ends up being approved in court.

Diamond Sports Group Expected To Retain Guardians, Rangers, Twins Broadcasts For 2024

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Diamond Sports Group has been renegotiating its in-market deals with the Guardians, Rangers and Twins as part of its ongoing bankruptcy proceeding. Evan Drellich of the Athletic reported this morning that MLB expects all three organizations to sign one-year deals to remain on Diamond’s Bally Sports networks for the 2024 season. None of those contracts have yet been finalized.

The Twins’ TV deal expired at the end of the 2023 season. The Rangers and Guardians still had contracts with Diamond, but the broadcasting conglomerate had called those deals unprofitable and threatened to abandon them if they weren’t renegotiated at a lesser fee. Diamond already dropped contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during the ’23 season.

That left Cleveland, Texas and Minnesota to discuss reduced terms or to risk losing their local broadcasting fees entirely. According to various reports, Cleveland made $55MM off their TV deal a year ago. Texas took in around $111MM from Diamond, while Minnesota’s contract paid $54MM in its final season.

The specific terms under discussion aren’t known. However, Drellich reports that the Guardians and Rangers are expected to lose 15% or less of what they otherwise would have received in 2024. It’s unclear how much of a reduction Minnesota might need to take on their next contract. On the one hand, that’s still an unenviable position for those organizations. A 15% reduction could knock roughly $8.25MM off the Guardians’ expected revenues, while the Rangers’ deal could be reduced by something in the $17MM range by that criteria. (The precise figures are unclear, since the teams’ anticipated rights fees in 2024 were not necessarily the same as what they’d made in ’23).

At the same time, recouping 85+% of their expected fees is still a better outcome for those teams than moving on from Diamond entirely, which likely would have required the teams to turn to MLB to handle in-market broadcasting. That’s particularly true for Texas, which had one of the game’s more profitable RSN agreements. A one-year deal will still leaves the teams with long-term uncertainty, but they appear on track to remain on the Bally Sports networks for at least one more year.

If/when the new deals are finalized, Diamond will again be responsible for in-market televising for 12 teams. The company has already stated it’ll honor next season’s commitments at full price for the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Royals and Tigers. Whether Diamond will be able to operate beyond the ’24 MLB season remains to be seen. Its recent restructuring agreement to sell its in-market streaming rights to Amazon for an influx of $450MM is designed to keep the company afloat beyond this year. That is still pending approval from the bankruptcy court. Drellich notes that some within the baseball industry remain skeptical about Diamond’s long-term viability even if the court signs off on its streaming deal with Amazon.

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