Diamond Sports Group announces restructuring plan, includes Amazon investment

For some sports fans with Amazon Prime, they could have more reasons to invest in the service thanks to a potential union with a major regional sports carrier.

On Wednesday, Diamond Sports Group announced a long-awaited restructuring plan as it aims to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Amazon, the ecommerce giant, is bringing a $115M infusion of cash, which amounts to over one-quarter of DSG's $450M reorganization. The company would also take a 15% equity stake in the Bally Sports operator.

Amazon's presence could get DSG's creditors in line with the deal, considering the mighty heft that it carries thanks to the success it has with sports broadcasts on Prime Video, it's deep pockets and a growing interest in expanding its live sports portfolio.

In their analysis for The Athletic, Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov laid out the implications for the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball as a combined 37 teams from the three leagues maintain contracts with DSG. 

The Amazon plan could put an end to agreements the NBA and NHL made with Diamond Sports in late 2023. As for MLB, this restructuring plan could also prevent the league from selling a carriage plan featuring around a dozen teams contracted to DSG directly to Amazon.

Prime Video could lend a major hand to DSG's much-maligned streaming service. In addition to high costs, fans have frequently complained of streaming quality, something that Prime Video has shown it can master, especially with years of experience with "Thursday Night Football." 

This would be a much more expansive collaboration with a RSN carrier than the agreement Prime Video has had with the YES Network to stream select New York Yankees games for the past three seasons. 

However, it appears that MLB would still need to get on board with DSG's plan for the multiple teams the carrier still has agreements with.