A contract dispute between Comcast and Diamond Sports Group, which owns and operates 18 regional sports networks across the United States under the Bally Sports brand, resulted in sudden blackouts of these networks to Comcast subscribers across the country Wednesday.
The Bally Sports RSNs serve as the TV home to nearly half of all MLB, NHL, and NBA teams based in the United States. In some cases, live games were in progress when the local channel went dark Wednesday night.
The affected networks include Bally Sports Detroit, Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports Great Lakes, Bally Sports Indiana, Bally Sports Kansas City, Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports New Orleans, Bally Sports North, Bally Sports Ohio, Bally Sports Oklahoma, Bally Sports San Diego, Bally Sports SoCal, Bally Sports South, Bally Sports Southeast, Bally Sports Southwest, Bally Sports Sun, Bally Sports West, and Bally Sports Wisconsin.
"We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they work through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the term for another year, which they opted to not exercise," Comcast said in a statement released Wednesday.
In a post to its Twitter/X customer support account on Thursday, Bally Sports wrote, "Unfortunately, Comcast has rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and instead they pulled our signals while we continue to pursue a multi-year renewal agreement. As a result, Bally Sports broadcasts are unavailable to Comcast subscribers."
The post then encouraged customers to contact Comcast directly at 1-800-Xfinity and find alternative viewing options via a website, getmyhometeams.com.
Diamond Sports also released a statement claiming that, "Comcast has refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours. We are a fans-first company and will continue to seek agreement with Comcast to restore broadcasts, and at this critical juncture for Diamond, we hope that Comcast will recognize the important and mutually beneficial role Diamond and RSNs play in the media ecosystem."
Comcast is the second-largest carrier in the U.S., reportedly reaching 14.1 million subscribers through the end of 2023. Earlier Wednesday, Diamond announced it had reached an agreement with Cox to keep its channels live for the cable provider's seven million subscribers. Diamond previously announced deals with DirecTV and Charter Communications.
Diamond Sports declared bankruptcy in 2023. In March, it filed a reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.
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