Texas Rangers Could Get TV Rights Back in Bally, MLB Suit
As Major League Baseball’s suit against Diamond Sports Group continues in a Houston court on Wednesday, at least one MLB team has gotten its broadcast rights back as a result of the bankruptcy filing of Bally Sports’ parent company.
DSG owns Bally Sports Southwest, which broadcasts the Texas Rangers locally, and the other Bally Sports networks around the country. Bally Sports has the local broadcast rights of nearly half of the teams in MLB.
The San Diego Padres will get their rights back on Wednesday, per Sports Business Journal. Distribution of Padres games will revert to MLB. This is because DSG has skipped two rights fee payments as a result of its bankruptcy filing earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the MLB suit — designed to compel DSG to make rights fee payments it has previously skipped — includes three MLB teams — the Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians.
There may not be a decision on Wednesday, but the point of MLB’s suit is to either get DSG to pay up or to rescind the rights.
DSG skipped its payment to the Rangers on April 15, which was the first scheduled payment of the year. It’s not clear if DSG skipping the second payment — scheduled for June — would trigger the Rangers getting their rights back from DSG.
The Rangers made it clear before the season that if DSG were to skip a payment they would consider their agreement severed. The Rangers sent a letter to Diamond before it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy stating it would terminate its TV rights agreement if the company became insolvent.
As of now, Rangers games are still on Bally Sports Southwest.
From the time DSG skipped the Rangers’ payment, it had 30 days to cure the payment.
The Rangers originally signed a 20-year, $3 billion deal in 2010 with Fox Sports Southwest, which was purchased by DSG and became Bally Sports Southwest in 2019. It is believed the Rangers are owed $111 million in 2023.
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