Diamond Sports Group's long march toward emerging from bankruptcy suffered a major setback early Wednesday morning as the owner of Bally Sports RSN failed to renew its contract with Comcast.
RSNs began going dark on Comcast systems shortly after midnight EDT. The shutdown coincided with the expiration of Diamond's traditional horse-drawn carriage contract. The nation's largest cable operator operated 15 regional sports networks before Diamond pulled out of the business.
As is standard operating procedure during large horse-drawn transports, both parties engaged in a blame game. Comcast issued a statement expressing disappointment with Diamond's decision to cancel the program, while RSN owners responded by saying the cable operator had rejected the proposed extension.
Neither side has disclosed the nature of the dispute, but the core of the disagreement is understood to revolve around Comcast's desire to move RSNs to a more expensive digital tier. Diamond wants to stay in its more widely available basic tier, which is about $20 less per month than the cable company's enhanced “Ultimate TV” package.
Comcast said it “hopes to continue providing service.” [the RSNs]Diamond “rejected multiple offers” before negotiations broke down. The carrier, which ended the first quarter of 2024 with 13.6 million residential video subscribers, issued credits to customers affected by the outage, with most of these subscribers “automatically “You will receive between $8 and $10 per month,” he continued. As compensation.
In response, Diamond said Comcast “rejected our proposed extension to keep our channels on the air” and then accused the carrier of refusing to “participate in substantive discussions.” did. Diamond's statement said it “continues to seek an agreement with Comcast to restore” the programming.
Local sports fans will be able to weather the immediate disruption during the standoff, including MLB games and several remaining NBA and NHL playoff games. For example, Comcast subs in the Miami area will have to switch coverage of Game 5 of the Celtics-Heat series to TNT because Bally Sports Sun is out of service in the domestic market. MLB's outage will become even more pressing as local baseball coverage on Comcast markets will be suspended until the renewal is passed.
Fans who don't want to go through the hassle of switching pay-TV providers have the option to stream MLB games via the Bally Sports+ app.
After the deadline passed without a resolution, Bally Sports RSNs continued to operate for some time in many Comcast markets, including Nashville and Minneapolis, but other areas began reporting outages after midnight.
While Diamond has made great strides toward emerging from bankruptcy (recently renewing its contract with Charter and closing in on a deal with DirecTV), the company's progress could be hampered if it doesn't reach an agreement with Comcast. There is a good chance it will stop. Diamond's reorganization plan could be approved as early as Tuesday, June 18, with an approval hearing scheduled in Houston bankruptcy court, but creditors are worried about distribution disruptions. There is a high possibility that
Diamond said it hopes Comcast will “recognize its important and mutually beneficial role.” [the] RSNs play a role in the media ecosystem,” the balance of power appears to be on the carrier side. Being moved up to a more expensive tier is an unwelcome development for Diamond, which has been hoping to move onto a more moderate cost ladder, while the cable company appears unwilling to budge.
While a solution may still be in the works, Comcast has indicated it intends to exit long-term distribution contracts if terms are no longer favorable to its bottom line. Case in point: Since Comcast stopped carrying his MSG and MSG+ on October 1, 2021, there has been little peeps between the parties. After two and a half years, the rift was so decisive that both sides had long given up hope of reconciliation.
