The Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, and Arizona Diamondbacks claim Diamond Sports, the parent company of their television partner Bally Sports is holding their TV content hostage without fairly compensating them for the product.
Diamond Sports, the largest regional TV broadcaster of the NBA, NHL, and MLB put the TV rights for many professional franchises into limbo last month when they filed for bankruptcy after incurring $8 billion in debut. The situation ended up leaving far more questions than answers for teams. Especially those in MLB as their 2023 season was set to start not long after the filing.
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Since filing for bankruptcy, games for teams like the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, and Arizona Diamondbacks have still aired on local Bally Sports stations. Allowing fans for the franchises to still watch their favorite baseball teams each week without interruption. However, while there has not been an interruption in broadcasting, those teams claim they have seen an interruption in payments.
In a pair of filings made this week by the three organizations, in a Texas bankruptcy court, they claim that Bally Sports’ owner is “functionally holding the clubs captive.” In one filing from the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, the team claimed Diamond Sports was using their television product without paying for it.
In a separate filing from the Guardians and Twins, those clubs also claimed Bally Sports was using their “unique and exclusive intellectual property without paying a single penny for it.” The organizations also alleged that all the other teams that Diamond Sports has dealt with in MLB and other leagues have been compensated for their TV products, except for them.
In a filing on Monday, the broadcaster asked for approval to pay “reasonable value of the rights” and requested a May hearing where they plan to use expert testimony to prove the value that the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, and Arizona Diamondbacks should be compensated for this season.
All three teams are small to mid-market franchises, and Diamond Sports could be looking to leverage that fact to land a much smaller payout then the organizations expected.