On April 9, 2023, a Bally Sports display was shown during the top of the eighth inning of an MLB game between the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
David Berding | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
Bally Sports local channels are back Comcast Cable TV customers.
Diamond Sports, which owns the Bally Sports-branded regional sports network, inked a deal with Comcast on Monday to begin broadcasting the network to cable TV customers starting Aug. 1.
The network, which broadcasts regular-season local games for Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League in various markets, was shut down to Comcast cable customers on May 1, the start of the MLB regular season. Fans of 11 MLB teams, including the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins, were affected.
The deal paves the way for Diamond Sports to survive after filing for bankruptcy protection last March and has been working to secure deals with various pay-TV operators, including Comcast.
“Signing a new distribution agreement with Comcast, our third-largest distributor, marks an important step in our restructuring efforts and we are pleased that fans will once again have access to their local team’s broadcasts through Xfinity,” Diamond CEO David Pleschlak said in a news release.
Diamonds are also Charter CommunicationsDirecTV, Fubo.
“With our share of the proceeds finalized, we are now focused on finalizing an agreement with the NHL and resolving our ongoing negotiations with the NBA. With the basketball and hockey seasons fast approaching, we know time is of the essence and intend to promptly file a restructuring plan with the court once agreements with our team and league partners are complete,” Pleszlak said in a statement.
Both leagues have expressed concern about Diamond Sports’ future in recent court hearings, questioning whether the company can put together a viable business plan before the NBA and NHL seasons this fall.
Diamond had been scheduled to ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas for approval of its restructuring plan on Monday, but postponed the hearing in order to pursue a deal with Comcast.
The company has said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy protection under creditor ownership.
Negotiations between Diamond and Comcast fell apart in May over a dispute over terms, specifically how quickly the cable provider could move the sports networks into a tiered model, in which customers would have to choose a package that included the more expensive channels rather than being included in a broader cable package.
The deal reached Monday will allow Comcast to offer its Diamond Sports Network to such tiers outside of a broader cable package, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing details of the deal.
Pay-TV companies such as Comcast have been losing customers in recent years as they opt for cheaper streaming options. Comcast said last week that it lost 419,000 domestic cable TV customers in the second quarter, bringing its total subscriber count to about 13.2 million.
Regional sports networks, once a lucrative business, are especially under pressure as customers cancel their cable TV contracts.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
