iamond Sports Group is anticipated to file for chapter safety by Friday, March 17, which impacts its 19 regional sports activities networks. Most observers anticipate the submitting to occur as quickly as March 16. The days main as much as the anticipated submitting will likely be intense, with Diamond executives negotiating with everybody from leagues to collectors to distributors as they attempt to enter chapter with a restructuring plan that might be accepted by a choose.

Here are the principle storylines that can develop by means of the week.

1. What occurs?
Don’t anticipate huge modifications when Diamond information for chapter. Any chapter submitting marks the beginning of a course of. By all accounts, the Bally Sports-branded channels will proceed producing and carrying video games. Diamond executives have advised many of the groups and leagues that it’ll proceed paying its rights charges, even whereas in chapter.

2. What do you imply “most” groups?
Diamond already is late on one rights cost — to the Arizona Diamondbacks — in line with a number of sources. Diamond carries Diamondbacks video games on Bally Sports Arizona as a part of a deal that largely is taken into account extraordinarily favorable to the crew and runs by means of 2035.

Diamond has a grace interval the place it may make the cost with out penalty, however that grace interval ends at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, March 16. If Diamond fails to make its cost by then, anticipate MLB to attempt to get the crew’s linear tv and digital rights again.

Diamond Sports is already late on a rights cost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, in line with sources.usa immediately photographs

3. Are different groups in peril?
So far, Diamond has paid all of its rights charges on time, aside from the Diamondbacks. Multiple sources level to 3 different MLB golf equipment which have rights offers which are thought-about extraordinarily favorable to the groups and will face the identical state of affairs because the Diamondbacks. One is the San Diego Padres, which has a take care of Bally Sports San Diego that pays the crew a median of $60 million yearly by means of 2032. The Cleveland Guardians and Cincinnati Reds, which have rights offers with Bally Sports Ohio, even have offers that tremendously favor the groups, sources stated. Sports Business Journal has not been in a position to decide the worth of these two offers.

Diamond launched this assertion: “We’ve been making our rights payments to teams with the exception of the Diamondbacks, where we have exercised a contractual grace period in order to maximize flexibility, especially given that we do not have DTC rights. We are continuing to broadcast games and are operating our business as usual.”

4. Are Diamondbacks followers in peril of not with the ability to see their crew’s video games on TV this season?
The Diamondbacks’ rights don’t mechanically revert to the crew or MLB if Diamond misses a cost. MLB will attempt to get these rights again by means of the chapter courtroom, which might take an unknown period of time. While below chapter safety, sources anticipate Diamond to proceed producing and carrying these video games in order that it continues to be paid by cable and satellite tv for pc distributors.

5. In a worst-case situation, what occurs to Bally Sports Arizona if it doesn’t carry Diamondbacks video games?
The RSN, which nonetheless has rights to Arizona Coyotes and Phoenix Suns video games, must renegotiate its offers with cable and satellite tv for pc distributors. In some instances, rebate clauses already are constructed into these offers that spell out how a lot much less the distributor should pay the RSN if it loses certainly one of its groups. If the contract doesn’t have that language, the RSN will attempt to renegotiate a brand new charge.

6. How does Diamond stand with its distributors?
One of the largest points Diamond faces is that it has to renegotiate 4 of its greatest distribution offers inside the subsequent 12 months, in line with a number of sources. Diamond’s present offers with Comcast and DirecTV expire within the fall. Its take care of Charter extends into early subsequent yr. One of Diamond’s greatest belongings on this space is the truth that it now has David Preschlack working the enterprise. Preschlack minimize his tooth within the enterprise doing a lot of these offers whereas at ESPN and has deep relationships all through the cable and satellite tv for pc neighborhood.

7. What in regards to the NBA and NHL? Are their groups in danger?
NBA executives have been working with Diamond to determine a plan to maneuver ahead. The NBA needs to be sure that its groups proceed to obtain their native rights charges funds for, at the least, the subsequent two years when the league goes to market with its nationwide rights. It’s within the NBA’s greatest monetary curiosity to attempt to hold Diamond afloat till that point. The NHL is also working with Diamond to achieve an answer. At the tip of 2021, the NHL was the primary league to chop a digital rights take care of Diamond, and sources say the league is trying to accommodate the corporate. Of all of the leagues, the NHL is, maybe, in the most effective place within the unlikely occasion that Diamond fails to hold its video games. The NHL already has a deal that permits ESPN to hold the league’s out-of-market video games on ESPN+. The league might trend a deal that might give ESPN the in-market rights, too.

John Ourand will be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ and browse his weekly newsletter and hearken to his weekly podcast.