Diamond Sports Group's bankruptcy proceedings continue with no end in sight, with a judge postponing a hearing scheduled for June 18 but on Tuesday ordering the company to develop a “very clear business plan” by July.
Read also: Everything you need to know about Bally Sports' bankruptcy
Diamond, which operates the remaining 18 Ballysport regional pay-TV channels, found its bankruptcy restructuring plans in serious disarray in late April. A new transportation contract could not be agreed upon. In partnership with Comcast.
At a hearing Tuesday to discuss the delay in the restructuring plan, lawyers for Diamond said negotiations with Comcast are at an “impasse.”
“Comcast's stubborn refusal to budge from its current position leaves the company with little choice but to explore alternatives to Comcast,” attorney Joe Graham said.
Comcast responded: “Because Bally Sports chose not to exercise its rights to a contract extension and rejected multiple offers, we do not have the rights to their programming. Over 70% of our customers who watched these networks no longer watch these networks. We have moved forward with a plan to aggressively refund costs associated with these networks to millions of customers. Most customers have automatically received a refund of $8-10 per month.”
Diamond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last March. The company had hoped to finally present its implementation plan to the court on June 18, but now it's in the perennial position of trying to buy time, with only a limited amount of what the judge can present.
Meanwhile, Diamond's league partners are growing increasingly anxious.
Major League Baseball has already announced that it will stop broadcasting the game to fans in the wake of the Comcast outage. Diamond's restructuring plan declared “unconfirmable” in guilty court documents filed last month.
During Tuesday's hearing, the NBA and NHL also expressed concern that the Diamonds will not have a restructuring plan in place by October, when both leagues are scheduled to start their new seasons.
“We want to reiterate why timing is so important to the NBA, with the start of the 2024-2025 season rapidly approaching,” NBA lawyer Vincent Indelicato said in court Tuesday. “Much must be done prior to the season in order to properly produce and distribute the games.” (CNBC reported on Tuesday's hearing.)
Diamond is suffering losses as negotiations with the second-largest U.S. pay-TV provider stall.
Diamond said in a court filing last week that the bankruptcy resulted in losses of $46.5 million between May 18 and Aug. 16, even though many of the contracts with loss-making teams have been renegotiated.
on the other hand, Bloomberg report This week, information emerged that sports betting company FanDuel may make a bid to acquire Bally Sports Channel if the Diamonds ultimately are unable to reach a workable restructuring agreement.
