Bankrupt regional sports network Diamond Sports has received several extensions to finalize its streaming deal with Amazon after a bankruptcy judge postponed the embattled company's showdown with Major League Baseball.
The nation's largest RSN, which operates under the Barry name, has broadcast rights to half of the NBA teams, one-third of the NHL clubs and 11 MLB teams, including the World Series champion Texas Rangers, and streaming rights to five of them. owns the rights.
As The Post exclusively reported this week, MLB was looking to sell all of its teams' streaming rights to Amazon for about $150 million, but MLB rejected the proposal.
Diamond Sports' creditors now plan to partner with Amazon to obtain streaming rights to the five teams it owns, people told the Post.
Meanwhile, MLB offered the Diamond a deal that would reduce media rights fees paid to three of the 11 teams in exchange for the league acquiring digital rights for all Diamond teams in 2025, officials said. Ta.
Diamond may still accept MLB's offer, but wants more time to negotiate with Amazon, two people familiar with the situation said.
A bankruptcy judge in Houston granted that request and postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday until Jan. 19.
Diamond's senior financiers, who are $650 million in debt, generally support MLB's plan, the people said. Diamond hopes to wind down after the 2024 MLB season and sell its lucrative media contracts to rival networks, people familiar with the matter said.
But the junior financiers, saddled with $8 billion in debt, hope to scrape together enough money to pay off the senior financiers and keep Diamond afloat, the people said.
Prudential's junior creditors are negotiating a settlement with Diamond's parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, over a $1.5 billion lawsuit in which Sinclair allegedly forced RSN into debt, one of the people said. .
If a financial agreement can be reached with Sinclair, the junior creditors will use the proceeds, funds from Amazon's restructuring deal, and Diamond's cash and receivables to repay senior creditors in full, according to sources familiar with the matter. It is said that it will happen.
Junior creditors will then take over Diamond and try to turn the business around, but it is beset by continued cord-cutting and plummeting TV advertising revenue.
One option would be to abandon an unprofitable contract to broadcast games for the Rangers, Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins.
Mr. Diamond declined to comment.
