Nearing decision day, what's the deal with the Twins and Bally Sports North?
In exchange for the Minnesota Twins' direct-to-consumer streaming rights via Bally Sports+, Diamond Sports Group, owners of Bally Sports North, has promised to pay 100% of the rights fees, according to Sports Business Journal's Joh Ourand.
This comes after court battles in April in which Diamond requested to pay only a portion of the rights fees while the Twins filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in an attempt to force Diamond to stick to the original contract that was agreed upon before Diamond filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Despite the legal issues, Twins games have continued to air on Bally Sports North.
Ourand says Diamond has promised to pay the full rights fees over the life of the contracts with nine teams, including the Twins, in exchange for the direct-to-consumer streaming rights. It's unclear how long Diamond's contract with the Twins runs, but Ourand says the company is willing to return the streaming rights if they miss a future payment.
In April, a legal filing by Diamond requested the court to consider allowing them to pay the Twins, Guardians and Diamondbacks "only the reasonable value of the rights" to produce and distribute their games.
The Twins and Guardians filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court saying Diamond was unjustly using their "valuable, unique and exclusive intellectual property without paying a single penny for it," urging the court to order Diamond to "comply with their previously negotiated contractual commitments and pay for the right to televise the Clubs’ baseball games they are actively broadcasting."
This leads to the looming May 31 court hearing when a bankruptcy judge will decide how much Diamond has to pay the Twins and other teams.
MLB has said it is prepared to produce and distribute games in any market that Diamond departs. That could mean, if Diamond misses a payment, that Twins games would be taken over by Major League Baseball and televised on a different channel, though that would require new deals with cable, satellite and streaming services.
Bring Me The Sports has reached out to the Minnesota Twins and their legal representation for comment, and to find out if Diamond has made any payments to the team since the court documents were filed April 11.
