((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer by Dietrich Knauth
Diamond Sports Group received court approval Thursday for a bankruptcy restructuring that will rebrand its television channels, reduce nearly $9 billion in debt and renegotiate broadcast contracts with six Major League Baseball teams.
Bankruptcy Judge Chris Lopez approved the restructuring after MLB dropped an objection that called into question the viability of Diamond’s future business plans.
Diamond will emerge from bankruptcy as an “essentially new company,” more focused on streaming sports games online, Brian Hermann, the company’s lawyer, told Mr. Lopez at a hearing in Houston.
As part of the restructuring, Diamond agreed to rebrand its channels as FanDuel Sports Network and partnered with Amazon to stream games on Amazon Prime Video. Coming out of bankruptcy, FanDuel channels will broadcast games from 13 NBA teams and 8 NHL teams.
The company recently entered into new broadcast and streaming deals with six baseball teams, allowing fans to watch games online and on cable television. MLB has consistently opposed Diamond’s efforts to add streaming rights to its deals, and Diamond recently said it was willing to cut ties with all but one MLB team if it was unable to rework its contracts.
Diamond ultimately reached last-minute, multi-year deals with about half of his MLB partners, while cutting ties with others. All of the revamped contracts include online streaming rights, but Diamond did not disclose the length or financial terms of the contracts.
Diamond has signed new multi-year contracts to broadcast Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Angels, St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers games.
Diamond terminated his contracts with the Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers during his bankruptcy.
Diamond also introduced a new “pay per game” option for fans who want to access National Hockey League and National Basketball Association games without a subscription.
Diamond, which previously relied on three cable TV distributors for more than 80% of its revenue, filed for bankruptcy in March 2023, stuck between its expensive contracts with sports teams and declining cable TV revenue due to the makes sports viewers cut the cable.
Prior to its bankruptcy filing, Diamond broadcast approximately 40% of regular-season baseball, hockey and basketball games in the United States through its Bally Sports-branded television channels.
The bankruptcy restructuring will wipe out the stake of Diamond’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and hand ownership of the company to a group of lenders, including PGIM Inc and Hudson Bay Capital Management. The restructuring will reduce Diamond’s debt from nearly $9 billion to $200 million.
