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Sports leagues question whether broadcaster Diamond can survive without Comcast

Big League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association stated on Wednesday that bankrupt broadcaster Diamond Sports might not survive without a new offer with cable television supplier Comcast.

The sports leagues informed a personal bankruptcy judge at a court hearing in Houston that they need more details about a negotiating impasse that triggered Diamond's Bally Sports-branded channels to be pulled from Comcast at the start of May, with baseball season underway and the NBA and NHL in the middle of postseason playoffs.

Diamond, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, had been pushing to finalize its personal bankruptcy restructuring by June 15, however the sports leagues said Diamond must initially reach deals with the three significant cable television partners, including Comcast, that offer 80% of the business's income.

Without those deals, Diamond's revenue might not suffice to sustain its organization, and the leagues might need to seek alternative broadcast plans for the groups presently under contract with Diamond. Diamond currently broadcasts games for over one-third of NBA, NHL and MLB teams.

Sitting here today, we do not understand what the go forward plan is, or even if there is a viable strategy, the NHL's attorney Shana Elberg stated. We can not head into another offseason because position.

U.S. Personal Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez urged Diamond to keep working on its bankruptcy restructuring and to offer more details to the sports leagues at a status conference in two weeks.

There's been a lot of great that's been done, and I do not want to lose sight of that, Lopez stated. However there are still major concerns that need to be answered.

The NBA and NHL had, previously, been helpful of Diamond's restructuring efforts, remaining mainly on the sidelines in the business's bankruptcy while it worked out deals with other stakeholders. Diamond has stated it means to reach new long-lasting broadcast deals with NBA and NHL teams as part of its restructuring.

MLB, which was already at chances with Diamond over the broadcaster's desire to stream more games to fans online, has actually seen 2 groups' broadcast agreements canceled throughout the insolvency, and suffered further disturbance when Comcast got rid of Bally Sports channels in May.

Diamond's failure to reach a deal with Comcast was a potentially overwhelming obstacle that had currently shown exceptionally harmful to MLB and its fans Major League Baseball wrote in a court filing ahead of the hearing.

Diamond has said it is continuing to work out with Comcast, and it has reached long-lasting agreements with its other crucial cable partners, DirecTV and Charter.

Diamond declared insolvency in March 2023, caught in between pricey broadcast rights arrangements and a drop in revenue due to cord-cutting by sports viewers.

(source: Reuters)