Twins now in grace period with Diamond Sports group

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 4/9/2023 at 11:48 AM, lecroy24fan said:

Why would any team in the last year of a deal re-up with a company that will cease to exist in a year? There is a very good chance they don't exist by the end of the year. I get there really is no local option that isn't broadcast but 

That's largely why Diamond didn't pay the Twins. When they're fighting to keep paying teams with contracts that go for years past 2023, there's little incentive to pay the Twins and their expiring contract, who it seems have been pretty hostile with Diamond for the past couple of years (and for good reason).

[Vanimal46]

Has anyone read an update on this? Today is the deadline for Diamond Sports to pay the Twins. 

[chpettit19]

14 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Has anyone read an update on this? Today is the deadline for Diamond Sports to pay the Twins. 

Diamond is attempting to cut their fees and pay the Twins, Guardians, and Diamondbacks what they say is a more accurate amount based on the current market value. The teams are obviously telling them to pay what they're owed.

[ashbury]

10 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Diamond is attempting to cut their fees and pay the Twins, Guardians, and Diamondbacks what they say is a more accurate amount based on the current market value. The teams are obviously telling them to pay what they're owed.

And if "current market value" had gone up would Diamond be handing over an extra wheelbarrow of cash?

... is the question I'd be asking if I were the bankruptcy judge.

[Vanimal46]

19 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Diamond is attempting to cut their fees and pay the Twins, Guardians, and Diamondbacks what they say is a more accurate amount based on the current market value. The teams are obviously telling them to pay what they're owed.

Doesn’t sound fair and equitable to me. Can’t imagine this is going to end well. 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

"MLB said time is of the essence, and argued Diamond Sports' request to delay a hearing on the matter to mid-May wasn't reasonable. Still, it agreed to delay the hearing from the originally requested date of April 13 — this Thursday — to April 19, at which point it hopes the court will approve its motion to compel payment or return of the telecast rights." 

https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/mlb-and-diamond-sports-argue-over-late-payments-amid-bankruptcy

I had wondered why we hadn't heard anything.   Looks like Wednesday they will have a hearing.  They also stated they have the funds to pay for all the licensing fees.  Looks like will remain on Bally's for the remainder of the season.  I was sure wishing MLB would take over.  

[Vanimal46]

The first shoe has dropped in the RSN debacle for MLB. What’s the latest with the Twins and Diamond Sports?

[Richie the Rally Goat]

3 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

The first shoe has dropped in the RSN debacle for MLB. What’s the latest with the Twins and Diamond Sports?

The Athletic wrote up a good article.

“

One source, who has advised some of the creditors, believes Diamond is sending a message to MLB with the move, as if to taunt them with how much the Padres are losing. This source texted: “The question to ask is, ‘What is MLB doing?’ I mean they just cost the Padres a bunch of money without a clear way to replacement.

“I would expect MLB will try to launch a new RSN but it is impossible to fathom that they will get (anywhere) near the approx $50-60 million per annum they (were) getting from Bally’s. It will probably be half that and maybe even on a sports tier.”

That said, MLB controls the Padres’ digital rights, the feature Diamond fruitlessly negotiated for the last several years. Now MLB can sell all media platforms for the Padres, one small step toward its goal of a local/national multiplatform viewing option. — Kaplan”

[NotAboutWinning]

No, these teams and MLB will not be able to replace this revenue. They shouldn't have had it in the first place. It is a bad business model. It is the reason Diamond is bankrupt. It has fueled insane team valuations and player contracts. Time for a reset!

[DJL44]

Diamond Sports stopped making payments to the Padres and rights reverted to MLB. MLB is selling streaming rights for $20/month or $75 for the rest of the season. Here's hoping they stop paying the Twins next.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Streaming details have been released and wow, they're impressive. Kudos to MLB for hitting the ground running.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-to-produce-broadcast-padres-games

[wsnydes]

Am I reading this correctly?  They eliminate streaming blackouts but only if you pony up another $20/month or $75 for the remainder of the season?  And if you already have an mlb.tv subscription, it doesn't get you around the blackout rules?

[Major League Ready]

36 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Streaming details have been released and wow, they're impressive. Kudos to MLB for hitting the ground running.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-to-produce-broadcast-padres-games

Thanks for the link.  That was an interesting read.  I kind of doubt the Padres are "disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement".  Sounds to me like a better product that will reach almost triple the number of homes and do away with blackouts.  I would assume all of the teams are hoping to take back their broadcast rights.  

It will be very interesting to see how this impacts team revenue over the next few years, but you have to believe the accessibility and reach will produce greater revenue.  Hopefully, this change mitigates some of the disadvantage the Twins have had in terms of TV revenue.

[Brock Beauchamp]

12 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

Am I reading this correctly?  They eliminate streaming blackouts but only if you pony up another $20/month or $75 for the remainder of the season?  And if you already have an mlb.tv subscription, it doesn't get you around the blackout rules?

Not currently, no. It's an additional fee but if you use cable, you're likely getting Padres games back in the SD market.

[wsnydes]

23 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Not currently, no. It's an additional fee but if you use cable, you're likely getting Padres games back in the SD market.

Ok, so it does help cable subscribers but still leaves streamers hanging to a degree.  I suppose overall, that's an improvement but still leaves streamers few options unless you want to chip in $20/month just for Pads games.

At least with the Bally's app, you got two teams (no twins obviously) for that price.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Diamond Sports stopped making payments to the Padres and rights reverted to MLB. MLB is selling streaming rights for $20/month or $75 for the rest of the season. Here's hoping they stop paying the Twins next.

In the Athletic article, they walked through the difference. The Padres had a partnership w/ Diamond, meaning there’s no bankruptcy court process. With the Twins it’s just a standard buyer/seller agreement so it does fall under Bankruptcy and following the Bankruptcy process.

Balley Sports did stop paying the Twins and apparently agreed to a prorated amount to keep the broadcasting going through the process.

[Brady]

Per the Star Tribune, the judge has decided that as long as Diamond is broadcasting D-Backs, Twins, Guardians, and Rangers games, they must pay the teams the "full contractual rate." It seems like this will bring things to a head very quickly, given that Diamond has already skipped out on one payment to the Twins in April and has another due one month from today.

How long until the Twins are on MLB.TV?

[wabene]

11 minutes ago, Brady said:

Per the Star Tribune, the judge has decided that as long as Diamond is broadcasting D-Backs, Twins, Guardians, and Rangers games, they must pay the teams the "full contractual rate." It seems like this will bring things to a head very quickly, given that Diamond has already skipped out on one payment to the Twins in April and has another due one month from today.

How long until the Twins are on MLB.TV?

What a cluster

[Vanimal46]

9 hours ago, Brady said:

How long until the Twins are on MLB.TV?

By July 1 is my guess. They’re not gonna pay the Twins. Just don’t see it happening. 

[CRF]

What exactly does all this mean? For an old dope like me, this is too complicated and too hard for me to figure out. What channel, or source, will I be able to watch the games on? I get BSN on Spectrum cable now. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

22 minutes ago, CRF said:

What exactly does all this mean? For an old dope like me, this is too complicated and too hard for me to figure out. What channel, or source, will I be able to watch the games on? I get BSN on Spectrum cable now. 

If MLB takes over broadcasts, they'll likely do the same thing they did with the Padres: create a new channel that will be available on your current cable package.

[DJL44]

22 minutes ago, CRF said:

What exactly does all this mean? For an old dope like me, this is too complicated and too hard for me to figure out. What channel, or source, will I be able to watch the games on? I get BSN on Spectrum cable now. 

Who knows. You won't be watching them on BSN anymore. The Padres had a bunch of different cable options depending on the subscriber. I don't know if those channels play anything at all when there isn't a Padres game.

If your cable provider doesn't get a Twins channel then you'll be able to subscribe through MLB.tv and watch them using a streaming device (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire stick, computer, iPad, etc) assuming you have an internet connection.

I've been Roku/streaming for years now and it's a lot better than cable. For $22 a month I'm getting all the TV I could ever watch. The only thing I miss is Twins baseball.

 

[chaderic20]

On 5/31/2023 at 11:48 AM, wsnydes said:

Ok, so it does help cable subscribers but still leaves streamers hanging to a degree.  I suppose overall, that's an improvement but still leaves streamers few options unless you want to chip in $20/month just for Pads games.

At least with the Bally's app, you got two teams (no twins obviously) for that price.

This doesn't leave streamers hanging in any way, it's actually a streamer's dream come true! I will GLADLY pay $20/month to stream in-market games versus $150/month for cable + sports package. As a former resident of Iowa, BSN breaking their contract with the Twins and MLB doing something like this for the Twins would have be an answer to prayer. Now a resident of IL, I can just do MLB.TV and watch the Twins, but I actually still hope for all the Twins (and Cubs, White Sox, Royals, Cardinals, and Brewers) fans in Iowa, that MLB takes over those teams' broadcasts and allows in-market streaming for just $20. Even if it's $20 per team, you could still get all 6 of those for less than cable. So, $20 per month? TAKE MY MONEY!!!

[CRF]

57 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

If MLB takes over broadcasts, they'll likely do the same thing they did with the Padres: create a new channel that will be available on your current cable package.

Thanks Brock. I hope that's the way it goes down. I just have this feeling that it'll get screwed up here in MN, like everything else seems to.  

[DJL44]

Bonus - if rights revert to the Twins my in-laws will likely get Twins games on Dish Network for the first time in four years.

[DJL44]

On 5/31/2023 at 11:48 AM, wsnydes said:

$20/month just for Pads games.

Actually, you get more than just Padres games. It's also:

"eligible out of market games (subject to national exclusivities), plus access to MiLB and MLB Big Inning"

[wsnydes]

40 minutes ago, chaderic20 said:

This doesn't leave streamers hanging in any way, it's actually a streamer's dream come true! I will GLADLY pay $20/month to stream in-market games versus $150/month for cable + sports package. As a former resident of Iowa, BSN breaking their contract with the Twins and MLB doing something like this for the Twins would have be an answer to prayer. Now a resident of IL, I can just do MLB.TV and watch the Twins, but I actually still hope for all the Twins (and Cubs, White Sox, Royals, Cardinals, and Brewers) fans in Iowa, that MLB takes over those teams' broadcasts and allows in-market streaming for just $20. Even if it's $20 per team, you could still get all 6 of those for less than cable. So, $20 per month? TAKE MY MONEY!!!

You're trading a cable and sports package for the ability to watch ONLY Twins games?  I'm a Hulu subscriber and that's my TV, local and live channels and all.  I'm not getting rid of that, so I'd be paying another $20/month on top of my Hulu subscription to watch only the Twins.  That's a non-starter for me.  Adding another channel to a cable package doesn't help me.  

At some point, the growing list of apps that are required to watch specific things you want watch has to hit a breaking point.  When Hulu dropped FSN, my subscription price didn't go do.  I'm still paying for it without the benefit of being able to watch the content.  It's not even about the money.  That isn't a problem.  It's the fact that I got rid of DirecTV because it was really expensive for what I watched.  If I have to keep adding apps at $20/month each, then I'm right back where I started.  At least with the Bally's app, you got access to TWO teams games.    

[DJL44]

1 minute ago, wsnydes said:

You're trading a cable and sports package for the ability to watch ONLY Twins games?  I'm a Hulu subscriber and that's my TV, local and live channels and all.  I'm not getting rid of that

I was able to get all the over the air channels by putting a $50 antenna from Menards on the roof. I used the cable from my previous Dish Network installation, removed the dish and attached the antenna to the bracket where the dish used to be. Added a $10 signal amplifier near the TV. Works great and costs $0/month.

[wsnydes]

Just now, DJL44 said:

Actually, you get more than just Padres games. It's also:

"eligible out of market games (subject to national exclusivities), plus access to MiLB and MLB Big Inning"

I haven't seen what the "eligible out of market games" actually includes though.  I haven't seen that that isn't just games that are already televised nationally anyway.  But that doesn't add a whole lot of value to me personally since I already have an MLB.tv subscription that covers all of that anyway.  

[wsnydes]

4 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I was able to get all the over the air channels by putting a $50 antenna from Menards on the roof. I used the cable from my previous Dish Network installation, removed the dish and attached the antenna to the bracket where the dish used to be. Added a $10 signal amplifier near the TV. Works great and costs $0/month.

Oh, I know that's an option for local channels.  I use Hulu for far more than local channels though, so I'm still paying for that regardless.

In this particular case, I have an issue with paying $20/month for essentially just Twins games since I have the other "perks" covered elsewhere anyway.  It'd be more palatable if other local teams were included as well.