A Bally Sports display is seen in the eighth inning of the MLB game between the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 9, 2023.
David Berding | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
Bally Sports regional channels return to Comcast cable TV customers.
Diamond Sports — the owner of regional sports networks under the Bally Sports brand — reached a deal with Comcast on Monday that will see its networks go live for cable customers on Aug. 1.
The networks, which carry local regular season games for Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams in various markets, went dark for Comcast cable customers on May 1 at 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 last March. It is working to secure contracts with various pay TV providers such as Comcast.
“The conclusion of a new carriage agreement with Comcast, our third-largest distributor, is a critical step forward in our restructuring effort, and we are pleased that fans will once again be able to access their local teams’ broadcasts through Xfinity.” said Diamond CEO David Preschlack. in a press release.
Diamond has also entered into carriage agreements Communications MapDirecTV and Fubo.
“With certainty around our distribution, we are focused on finalizing an agreement with the NHL and resolving our ongoing negotiations with the NBA. We are mindful that time is of the essence with the basketball and hockey seasons quickly approaching and when agreements with the our team and the league’s partners are complete, we intend to move quickly to present a reorganization plan to the Court,” Preslak said in the statement.
The leagues recently raised concerns about the future of Diamond Sports in court hearings, questioning whether the company could put together a viable business plan ahead of the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons this fall.
Diamond had been scheduled to seek court approval Monday for its reorganization plan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, but postponed the hearing as it tried to reach a deal with Comcast.
The company has said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy protection under the ownership of its creditors.
Negotiations between Diamond and Comcast broke down in May after a dispute over terms, namely how quickly the cable operator could shift sports networks to a tiered model, meaning customers would have to opt into the packages which include the channels at a higher rate than included in wider cable packages.
The deal reached Monday allows Comcast to offer Diamond Sports networks at such levels outside of its broader cable package, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the deal.
Pay-TV companies like Comcast have been hemorrhaging customers in recent years as customers opt for cheaper streaming options. Comcast said last week that it lost 419,000 domestic cable customers in the second quarter and now has about 13.2 million subscribers overall.
Once a profitable business, regional sports networks have been squeezed especially by customers leaving the cable bundle.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
