Bally Sports, who owns and operates many of the Regional Sports Networks that broadcast games for Major League Baseball (including broadcasts of the Atlanta Braves) stated in a bankruptcy court filing that they intend to cease broadcasting MLB games after the 2024 season.
In its filing with the court, Bally Sports specifically said:
These actions give MLB and its clubs the clarity they demand in their Objection concerning the future treatment of their telecast rights agreements and give them time to transition to another broadcast partner before the start of the 2025 MLB season. These actions will also minimize the risk of disruption to fans as the Debtors expect to continue broadcasting through the 2024 MLB season.
Parent organization Diamond Sports already dropped San Diego Padres games during the 2023 season, and announced that its now-concluded deal with the Minnesota Twins would not be renewed for 2024.
In previous comments about the team's broadcast rights, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei expressed confidence that the Braves would be able to get broadcasts to their fans were Bally to attempt to leave the contract, "“Even if they were to reject it, which we don’t expect, there’s other alternatives that we can construct in the marketplace that would enable us to get paid and have our product shown to our fans, which is really the most important thing. We’re certainly prepared if we have to go out and exercise those alternatives.”
Bally Sports admitted in the same filing that its possible they attempt to exit other contracts prior to the 2024 season, but that its deal with MLB will only cover 2024 and so teams should begin working on alternative distribution options.
Per reports, multiple teams have already made alternative arrangements that will be announced once they are officially released from the Bally contract.
One possibility, one commonly requested by fans, would be MLB bringing the broadcasts in house - after the Padres deal was canceled by Bally Sports, MLB made San Diego's games available on a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) option - streamed directly to subscribers, with no cable package authentication required. MLB paid for the production of the games, retaining most if not all of the staff previously working for Bally in the broadcasts.
It remains to be seen what direction the Atlanta Braves will go after 2024, but with the size of Braves Country, a DTC option could potentially be an interesting source of revenue. Whether or not it can surpass the size of the current broadcast deal with Bally, believed to be in the neighborhood of $100M annually, remains to be seen.
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