Braves Discuss Carriage Dispute Between Bally Sports and Comcast

The Atlanta Braves are caught in the middle of a carriage dispute that they legally can do nothing about

LEE CLARKSON / Statesman Journal via

The Atlanta Braves just completed a thrilling (and entertaining) two-game sweep at home of the Boston Red Sox.

The problem is, not every Braves fan who wanted to watch the game was able to do so. 

It’s the second week of a carriage dispute between Diamond Sports Group, which owns and operates fifteen regional and “Bally Sports” branded sports networks, and Comcast, one of the nation’s largest cable providers. 

(Important note: Diamond Sports Group is a separate entity from Diamond Baseball Holdings, the company that owns and operates 34 Minor League baseball teams, including all four of Atlanta’s full-season affiliates.) 

Because of the carriage dispute, all Bally Sports channels have been off the air since May 1st, when the existing contract expired and Comcast claims they lost the rights to air the games. 

The Atlanta Braves, in a recent conference call with Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc. shareholders, acknowledged the carriage dispute but delivered disappointing news to fans: 

“Carriage disputes are sort of commonplace, unfortunately, and we don’t like the fact that this carriage dispute is going on,” said Braves CEO Derek Schiller, a 20-year-veteran of the organization that handles all business and ballpark functions of the team. “We’re not a party to it, and we’re hoping that Comcast and Bally’s get together.”

Schiller confirmed that there’s nothing the team can do in this instance, as the dispute has nothing to do with the Braves and that the contract Diamond Sports Group has with the organization is still intact. “At this point in time, Diamond/Bally’s is fulfilling their terms with us, including full payment.” 

Several fans and even a few media members have (errantly) insisted that either the team or MLB should unilaterally decide to raise the blackout policy for MLB.tv so that fans can watch the games during the dispute, but that blackout is built into a contract between the organization and Diamond Sports Group that is still in place. 

Major League Baseball has discussed launching its own Direct-to-Consumer service once it gets the streaming rights back for its teams, a service that would allow fans to pay the league directly to stream their team’s games in-market. But in February, commissioner Rob Manfred expressed that the league would need “at least fourteen clubs” on board to make the service viable. The league only holds the rights to six teams now, the three that MLB is producing this season (Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres) and the three that were released from their contracts last season by Warner Bros. Discovery (Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Seattle Mariners). 

Additionally, three more teams are on one-year deals with Diamond Sports and are either not expected to re-sign after this season or are expected to cleave their streaming rights out of any future deal, returning them back to MLB: Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, and Cleveland Guardians. 

The fate of that proposed streaming service hinges on the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group. Scheduled to be resolved in June, Amazon has stepped in to financially back the reorganization plan. Establishing carriage deals with the largest cable carriers, however, is something that the court is going to require to approve the final bankruptcy plan, and it’s not yet done. 

Per the AJC ($), Diamond Sports has deals with three of the seven largest providers: Charter DirecTV, and Cox Communications, while the remaining that have yet to sign a new deal are Dish, YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, and Comcast. 

The heart of the disagreement between Comcast and Diamond remains the availability of the Bally Sports channels: Comcast wants to put them on a separate opt-in tier at an additional monthly charge, while Diamond Sports wants them to be part of the base-level package. 

As Diamond Sports would get paid per subscriber that received the channel, being on the base tier is of critical importance to earning the revenue required to pay each team for their broadcast rights. 

Comcast’s assertion is that “nearly 70%” of the subscribers who receive the networks in their cable service don’t actively watch them and they can reduce customer costs by not including them in the base package. 

Both sides have issued statements and blamed the other party for the lack of availability to watch the teams while the dispute is ongoing. 

Comcast points out that Diamond Sports Group, who was working on a six-month extension of the initial contract that expired in September of 2023, has the option to extend that agreement by one year but failed to exercise that option by a contractural deadline that passed in March. 

Diamond Sports claimed in an open letter that Comcast “refused to broadcast games” while negotiations were ongoing. It’s unknown if Comcast has the legal right to broadcast Bally Sports programming after the April 30th expiration of the contract. 

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Comcast has confirmed that the network is unable to carry the Bally Sports broadcasts for the Braves. Per a spokesperson, "The signals were deauthorized by Diamond Sports/Bally Sports on April 30th because there was no new agreement." A request for comment to Diamond Sports for clarification on their claim has yet to be returned.

In the meantime, the fans are the ones losing here. While this will eventually get resolved, it’s unfortunate that it’s so difficult for fans in-market (or even in the press box) to watch their team. 

When we arrived in the pressbox, this was on the TVs that normally show the Braves games. Oh, and that building beyond right field…. pic.twitter.com/6UyryZm4ah

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) May 7, 2024