Two different reports about the future of Diamond Sports — the parent company that carries games on Bally Sports regional channels — present an intriguing picture of how the company plans to stay afloat and emerge from a bankruptcy process that started in March.
In turn, these plans could have major implications for how Minnesota fans watch their favorite teams in 2024 and beyond. Bally Sports North in 2023 was the regional sports home of the Twins, Timberwolves, Lynx and Wild.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Diamond Sports is in negotiations with Amazon involving a "strategic investment and a multiyear streaming partnership" that would make Amazon Prime Video "the streaming home for Diamond games."
As I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, leveraging the deep pockets of Amazon — which already has Thursday night NFL games and is eager to add more sports as it competes with other streaming platforms — is an intriguing possibility.
It's unclear how such a partnership would work, but it could in theory help Diamond broker deals for streaming rights with Major League Baseball. And it could be a lifeline that keeps Diamond operating instead of liquidating if it comes to fruition and is approved.
But it also could serve as a complication to the other piece of news to emerge this week: Diamond has agreed to pay in full its MLB contracts in 2024 to most of the teams it carries, according to Sports Business Journal.
The Twins, Guardians and Rangers are not included in that list, though. The Guardians and Rangers are still under contract with Diamond, while the Twins' Bally Sports North contract expired at the end of the 2023 season. SBJ reports that Diamond is expected to "put in offers for those teams — presumably at lower rights fees than they have been paying."
The Twins' TV plans for 2024 are up in the air as this process plays out. Their contract with Diamond Sports paid them $54.8 million last season.
