(Bloomberg) -- Diamond Sports Group will stop televising games from all but one Major League Baseball team next year unless club owners cut new rights deals with the bankrupt broadcaster, lawyers said in court Wednesday.
Diamond has a new proposal to avoid going out of business that should allow the company to exit bankruptcy and continue broadcasting professional basketball and hockey games, lawyers told the judge overseeing the company’s insolvency case. So far, the only baseball games the company has committed to televise are those of the Atlanta Braves.
“Our preferred path would be to bring as many teams into the reorganization as possible,” Diamond attorney Andrew Goldman said.
Diamond was in court Wednesday to update US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez on its effort to avoid liquidation. The company told Lopez that it was close to reaching deals with creditors that should allow it to exit court oversight by the end of the year.
“The good news, your honor, is we are firmly on a path to reorganizing this company,” Diamond lawyer Brian Hermann said.
Diamond ended broadcast deals with the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres earlier in the bankruptcy process. While it still has agreements with more than ten other MLB teams, including the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels, those could be ended early as part of Diamond’s restructuring. Goldman said the company has been negotiating with each team to try to rewrite those contracts.
MLB lawyer James Bromley said the league hasn’t seen the restructuring deals that Diamond is proposing and needs more time to consider the broadcaster’s plans.
“It’s very clear that at least some of our clubs are being left out in the cold, yet again,” Bromley said.
Diamond had previously said it would announce by early October whether it would shut down or restructure its debt, handing ownership to senior lenders. The company now believes it can survive, unless none of the proposals are finalized. The new deadline to reorganize is the end of the year, Hermann said.
Lackluster television ratings have pressured Diamond and other US regional sports networks as audiences move to streaming services. Diamond, which shows games in the home markets of dozens of teams, has struggled to extend traditional television broadcast deals while it builds a streaming product.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2023, just four years after it was sold by Walt Disney Co. for $9.6 billion.
The case is Diamond Sports Group, 23-90116, US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).
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