As you are likely aware, Diamond Sports Group – the subsidiary that owns Bally Sports – is going through a bankruptcy and has been in court with Major League Baseball as the two sides have attempted to work through that so they can either come to an agreement to continue broadcasting games or drop those rights and teams can get the broadcast rights back and begin to plan for 2025.
Evan Drelich of The Athletic just broke the news that during a court hearing that Diamond stunned Major League Baseball by telling the court that they were planning to continue broadcasting just one team – the Atlanta Braves. He noted that Major League Baseball said that this was the first time had heard of this and that they were “sandbagged”.
So what does this mean for the Cincinnati Reds? Well, it’s pretty unknown at this point. But there are some things that are on the table. First would be to simply try and negotiate a new deal with Bally Sports.
But the other options are plentiful. The Reds and Major League Baseball could take the production in-house and do something similar to what a few other teams did when Bally dropped them last year and put their games on MLB.tv and offer those games to locals without blackout restrictions for a monthly/yearly fee. The Reds could also shop their broadcasts to other channels or streaming platforms.
No matter how any of that goes, Major League Baseball and the Cincinnati Reds are not going to be in a situation where fans can’t watch games. It’s almost assuredly going to cost the fans money to watch them, but they will be available to local fans.
But when it comes to the Reds, and these other teams, their ownership groups and front offices just got a rude awakening and a kick in the teeth. While the Cincinnati Reds didn’t exactly have a top tier television contract with Bally Sports, there is almost no way that their next deal will be remotely close to as valuable. So long story short, the Reds revenue from broadcasts is likely to drop off big time. And when you’ve already got a franchise that continuously cries poor, this is just another thing that’s going to keep them doing so and it’s likely going to mean spending less now and in the future compared to what they would have with their current deal remaining in place.
Buckle up. It’s going to be an interesting offseason.
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