
For the first time in months, there appears to be some positive news among the regional sports TV landscape.
Diamond Sports, the company that owns the countries’ largest collection of regional sports channels — including Bally’s Sports West (BSW) in Los Angeles, the primary station airing Kings games in Southern California — has been going through bankruptcy proceedings for more than a year and a half. Even so, they’ve continued to operate in many markets, and the Kings signed a new three-year agreement with BSW last September, continuing a 30-plus year relationship with the local channel.
Get ready for some changes, though.
Earlier this week, Diamond notified the courts of their intention to rebrand all Bally’s channels via a new partnership with FanDuel, the nation’s largest sportsbook. To most Kings fans watching at home, this will be rather seamless. The same on-air talent and behind-the-scenes production staff are expected to continue putting Kings broadcasts together. Much like the transition from Prime Ticket to a Bally’s channel, this will simply be a rebrand.
When Bally’s first signed on as the title sponsor of Diamond’s regional sports channels, it was through to be a groundbreaking idea. Up until that point, television stations around the U.S. had largely carried rather generic names, and certainly didn’t feature corporate sponsorship. Much like the renaming of sports stadiums and arenas have changed over the past few decades, observers at the time wondered how this would all work out with Bally’s and what it would ultimately mean for channel names in the future. To date, the concept hasn’t really caught on… yet. Perhaps under FanDuel, the true financial and consumer opportunities will find a way to be leveraged in a beneficial way.
This rebrand has been expected for months, as Diamond entered the 2024-25 NHL season on an expired deal with Bally’s. According to the court filing, some of the key terms surrounding the new agreement includes a promise of “integration between the RSNs and FanDuel promotions.”
The official date of the rebrand appears to be imminent and according to what we’ve heard from various sources it’s been ready to go on a few different occasions but was delayed for various reasons. Now, Diamond’s motion with the court requests for the FanDuel agreement to be approved by Monday, Oct. 21.
As reported previously and mentioned here — “Diamond has cut ties with many of its MLB teams, thus far committed to only keeping the Atlanta Braves. However, there are five teams – the Kansas City Royals, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Los Angeles Angels, the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins – in joint ventures with Diamond that the company has not decided yet whether to keep. Those decisions are outside the bankruptcy jurisdiction because the JVs are not part of the Chapter 11.”
AEG, the Kings parent company, is believed to be involved in the joint venture with the Angels involving Bally’s Sports West. That is most likely one of the key reasons the organization felt comfortable signing on for three more years with the channel. Should things go sideways with Diamond in bankruptcy court, we’ll assume there are protection clauses in place that would allow the Kings and Angeles to gain necessary control of their broadcasting rights.
The Kings are also believed to have one of the most profitable television contracts among the NHL teams who were tied to various Bally’s channels.
AEG COO Kelly Cheeseman talked openly about the current contract situation — both in terms of future opportunities and challenges — during his most recent appearance Kings Of The Podcast interview here.
Perhaps most interesting to viewers of the channel would be what happens with streaming rights moving forward.
This is not something controlled by the various teams, but rather Diamond Sports — and that could potentially transfer to FanDuel through this new arrangement. This week’s court filing included language stating, “The Debtors will grant FanDuel the right to resell the Debtors’ streaming product.”
Essentially, FanDuel would be granted the opportunity to sell streaming subscriptions to the regional sports networks.
And this is where Amazon may re-enter the group chat.
Earlier this year it was reported Amazon was in talks with Diamond to become a key investor, as the hope was that could be just the lifeline they needed to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy in a healthy position.
Then, in August, it was announced Amazon would not become an equity partner. However, the door was left open for a possible future relationship, including one where the streaming giant would help distribute Diamond’s sports content online.
From an article on Front Office Sports:
The decision, initially reported by Sports Business Journal and confirmed by Front Office Sports, arrives about eight months after Amazon had agreed to provide $115 million in bankruptcy exit financing, in turn receiving 15% of the company. The deal was also set to establish Amazon Prime Video as DSG’s “primary partner” for fans to access the RSNs on a direct-to-consumer basis.
This long and winding road of regional sports network drama could soon be coming to an end. Look for Bally’s Sports channels to rebrand to FanDuel very quickly, and then a potential streaming deal could be reached with Amazon (or another partner) in the months ahead.
For more on the Kings current TV situation, be sure to read the article below.
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