The Arizona Diamondbacks’ television broadcasts have been handed over to Major League Baseball after a bankruptcy judge approved the Diamond Sports team. Refusal to “reject” the agreement with the franchisee. That marks two teams that haven’t appeared on the Bally Sports airwaves since the San Diego Padres in May.
Diamond, which operates several regional sports networks (RSNs) using the Bally Sports branding, went into bankruptcy in March, seemingly foreshadowing a future in which Diamond-backed teams will no longer appear on the network. But we’re past the midpoint of the season and Arizona is only the second team to notice the change. So what’s next for breweries?
Can beer spreads disappear from Bally Sports Wisconsin?
Definitely not.
The Padres were a bit of an outlier moving too fast. The Padres’ unique status of San Diego’s share of the team’s ownership was outside of Diamond’s bankruptcy filing, allowing San Diego Diamond to quickly reclaim its distribution rights after defaulting on payments. Even if Diamond defaults or makes partial payments to other teams, changes to how games are broadcast must still await bankruptcy court proceedings.
Arizona has gone through that process and has now received approval to move on to another distribution plan.
Diamond has already been ordered to pay partial payouts to the Texas Rangers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins, meaning those situations are putting a lot of stress on Diamond’s operations. The brewers are one of five teams (Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Rays) that Bali also has direct-to-consumer distribution rights to.
Long story short: Don’t expect the Brewers to be one of those dominoes to fall. Expect them to be one of the last.
What happens now for Arizona fans?
Major League Baseball has confirmed that it is more than willing and ready to take over the broadcasts when San Diego regains its rights. Instant Games is available on multiple channels including Charter, Spectrum, Cox, DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse. The number of homes able to watch Padres games has increased. Not only that, but fans in the San Diego market can now purchase the MLB.com app, and Padres games are no longer isolated to them.
That’s good news for fans in Arizona (not to mention New Mexico, Utah and parts of southern Nevada) who have previously been shut out of Diamondbacks games. Arizona games are available on Cox, DirecTV, Spectrum and XFinity broadcasters, plus Fubo and DirecTV Stream.
There are some small improvements expected in Arizona’s coverage scheme, but that could be as simple as no pregame during the road race. The promoters, many of whom are already employed by the group, will remain largely intact.
In other words, if Diamond can’t support the Brewers’ broadcasts, Brewers fans should expect the games to be instantly available elsewhere.
Will the Brewers’ games be free if Diamond stops carrying?
A short transition period may only be through the MLB application.
How have the Padres’ games looked since MLB took over in May?
Most reports say the transition was seamless.
The graphics look different; You can decide for yourself what it looks like by watching Padres highlights on Twitter.
Will the broadcast change affect teams’ ability to pay players?
Major League Baseball has committed to giving away at least 80% of the broadcast rights offered in the RSN contract, although this is still a reasonably significant level of loss.
Could Brewers games stay at Bally Sports Wisconsin next year… or beyond?
We’re talking about the courts system, so yes, this could be delayed next season. Distributors like Charter have explored ways to keep RSN status flying.
But the next regional sports network is a bad idea, and Major League Baseball has shown how motivated it is to reclaim streaming rights, one day removing the blackout and offering its product to any household through the MLB app. .
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee broadcaster loses second MLB team. Brews next?
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