Amazon is poised to stream the games of five Major League Baseball teams this season after extending a roughly $100 million lifeline to help broadcaster Diamond Sports emerge from bankruptcy, The Post has learned.
Diamond — the nation’s largest regional sports network (RSN) with broadcast rights to 11 MLB teams, half the NBA teams and a third of the NHL teams — also is expected to win a separate, $495 million infusion after finalizing a settlement with parent company Sinclair, sources told The Post late Tuesday.
The two new revenue streams were presented to a US bankruptcy judge in Houston on Wednesday. The deal is expected to win approval despite MLB’s potential objections, sources said.
Diamond owns the streaming rights to five of the 11 MLB teams, but baseball commissioner Rob Manfred rejected Diamond’s proposed deal with Amazon for all 11 teams with the hope of negotiating his own contract with the streaming giant, as The Post previously reported.
Last week, the bankruptcy judge gave Diamond an extension to find an alternative that would please creditors, as The Post exclusively reported.
Amazon is planning to become a regional sports network for the first time. Sundry Photography – stock.adobe.comThe company had filed for bankruptcy in March last year after getting caught between expensive broadcast rights agreements and cord-cutting by sports viewers.
The new restructuring agreement would give Amazon an unspecified minority stake in Diamond after it emerges from bankruptcy in about three months, according to sources close to the negotiations.
It would also include the rights to stream all 162 games of the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays as Amazon looks to expand into the lucrative sports market — on the heels of the success of last weekend’s streaming-only NFL playoff game between the Chiefs and Dolphins.
Amazon exclusively airs some NFL games and a handful of MLB games but has not yet entered the regional sports network business where it is the home of a local team for a full season.
Fans of the five baseball teams would have to get an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $14.99 a month, to stream their games. It is not clear if fans in those markets would need to pay more than the Prime membership to get access to those games.
Diamond’s Bally Sports has the rights to many teams as shown on this 2019 map, though it no longer carries the Padres and Diamondbacks. Bally SportsDiamond, which broadcasts under the Bally’s brand, will continue to televise the 11 MLB teams for which it has rights, including the World Series champion Texas Rangers, on cable. Though it may dump the Rangers and the Cleveland Guardians before it emerges from bankruptcy, sources said.
The network’s streaming rights for NBA and NHL teams ends after this season. Diamond, which may not emerge from bankruptcy until after the current season, is expected to negotiate for the 2024-25 streaming rights so Amazon can air local basketball and hockey games going forward.
Diamond and Sinclair announced the news Wednesday morning and declined to provide further details. Amazon and MLB did not return calls for comment.
Diamond has $8 billion in junior debt, which last week was trading at five cents on the dollar.
Amazon looks like it will soon be the streaming home of the Detroit Tigers featuring pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long. APThe junior creditors are expected to pay off almost all of the $650 million owed to the senior lenders with the windfall from the $495 million settlement with Sinclair Broadcasting and the Amazon infusion, according to the sources.
Diamond sued the publicly traded parent company for $1.5 billion for allegedly taking too much money out of the subsidiary in fees and dividends.
Through tax breaks and the fee it will collect in the transition agreement, Sinclair believes it will end up taking a $250 million to $350 million loss on the settlement, sources said.
The junior creditors expect to take over Diamond with the blessing of the senior creditors and to run the business. Ultimately, they might sell Diamond to Amazon, the insider added.
Bally’s has agreed to drop its name from Diamond broadcasts after the 2024 baseball season, a source said.






