Diamond Sports Group said on Thursday that MLB's desire to broadcast games directly to fans “helped push the company's regional sports networks into bankruptcy,” according to Dietrich Knauth of REUTERS. Diamond attorney Andrew Goldman said during the company's first bankruptcy hearing in Houston that it “needs the right to stream MLB games online to make up for lost revenue from declining customer cable subscriptions.” Goldman told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, “The (MLB) Commissioner's office has made it clear that they want to take back the rights and go it alone, which will effectively drive us out of the market if they are successful.” MLB attorney James Bromley responded that Diamond “cannot force teams to provide additional streaming rights or make up for declining cable revenue.” Bromley: “We are dealing with a broken model, and it is not the responsibility of MLB to fix that model” (REUTERS, 3/17).
WAITING GAME: Bromley told the judge that DSG has “not said whether it will televise games for the 14 teams it has contracts with.” Bromley: “We are very concerned because opening day is just two weeks away.” He added that if Diamond “fails to pay any of the fees associated with the games,” MLB will ask Lopez “to take action.” Goldman said that Diamond “has the money to broadcast all the basketball and hockey games left for the year under its agreements with those sports leagues.” He “didn’t say whether the company plans to broadcast the baseball games” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 3/16).
