Bally Sports will not carry Twins games in 2025 if new deal isn’t reached
Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of Bally Sports, announced in court Wednesday it will drop broadcasts for all but one MLB team in 2025, according to several reports.
Diamond Sports said it will continue to carry the Atlanta Braves next season, and all other teams’ contracts will be rejected in the event the company “is unable to reach go-forward agreements with those teams.”
Seven teams that were under contract in 2025 will have to either renegotiate or find a new broadcasting network. Four other franchises — including the Minnesota Twins — were on one-year deals that expired at the end of the 2024 regular season.
“Today’s news does not change the Twins exploration of local media options for 2025 and beyond,” a Twins spokesperson said.
The company has committed to carrying NBA and NHL games through the 2024-25 season, leaving the Timberwolves and Wild unaffected for now.
Diamond’s status as a viable regional sports broadcaster has been in flux since the company filed for bankruptcy in late February 2023.
Bally Sports went dark for Comcast customers for three months earlier this year after the network’s carriage agreement expired on May 1. When the network came back in August, it was only available for Xfinity Ultimate TV subscribers — the most expensive cable package Comcast offers.
A Diamond spokesperson issued the following statement:
“Today marks an important step forward for Diamond with the filing of a baseline plan to enable us to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable, go-forward business before year-end. We have delivered proposals to and remain in discussions with our MLB team partners around go-forward plans. We firmly believe that through our linear and digital offerings we have created the best economic and fan-friendly engine for all of our team partners.”