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A very new update via Reuters came in the Bally bankruptcy. In almost a passing sentence a major detail was confirmed. Diamond (who owned Bally and is taking the name) signed over streaming rights to Amazon in January. From the article:
Diamond, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, is pursuing a restructuring that would eliminate over $8 billion in debt and provide the company with additional funding from Amazon.com as part of a streaming deal signed in January.
Before going into the other portion pay close attention to that paragraph. Amazon sent money to Diamond and secured streaming rights. I’ll post the MLB, NBA and NHL responses in a minute. Amazon wants a firm place in the streaming “family”. They bought the rights to Thursday Night Football and for the first time in history an NFL game was exclusively available via streaming. Last year streaming (for the first time ever) outperformed broadcast and cable television. Now, the hold is growing. As of February 2024 the reported cuts were: Streaming 37.7%, Cable 27.6%, Broadcast at 23.3% and “other” at 1.3%. When it was asked what “other” meant no definitive answer was given.
This is the part that matters to the viewers:
MLB, which opposed Diamond's effort to stream more baseball games directly to fans online, said in an April 10 court filing that it has "serious concerns" about whether Diamond can become a sustainable business after its bankruptcy restructuring.
The NHL and the NBA also expressed concerns last week, saying that the uncertain status of Diamond's negotiations with cable providers made it difficult for the leagues to plan ahead beyond 2024.
Both indicated more willingness to work with Diamond than the MLB in their recent court filings, with the NHL saying it was "hopeful" and the NBA saying it had "worked tirelessly" in support of Diamond's restructuring.
The NHL are “hopeful” something can be worked out. Keep in mind, the NHL was told they would be paid 20% less and could leave Bally last summer. The streaming side would be stable with Amazon, but the cable portion is a bit of a mess. Cord cutting seems to have picked up steam but streaming isn’t really replacing at a 1 for 1 pace. Why? Charter gave us the answer in the most bizarre way, a strike with ABC last year. ESPN wanted a raise (same parent company) and the cable company didn’t want to give it. For a couple days, the channels weren’t available. That’s when Charter released that 1/3 of customers were watching ESPN when it was available in their lineup. Well, if you leave cable to go a la carte and you weren’t watching something, are you going to pay to have it? Ta da.
Amazon has accomplished something I didn’t think could be accomplished. They secured streaming rights without negotiating with the leagues. Anyone who stays with Bally is seeing the new stand alone subscription fees that are popping up. If Amazon owns that streaming, what do you think is going to happen? We’re seeing it with Hulu. It went from a stand alone service to a tab on another service. With much deeper pockets than Diamond or Sinclair, Amazon could well have “Amazon Sports” running 17 markets along with the Thursday Night Football contract they secured. All of this is coming to you on Monday April 22nd 2024. This is the day when ESPN loses its exclusive negotiation rights with the NBA and the other companies can come in. The rumored interest? YoutubeTV (has NFL Sunday Ticket), AppleTV (able to overpay) and Amazon.
The deal with ESPN+ has an uncertain future (I already hear the skeptics) as all of ESPN is set to go to streaming in 2025. You may not be able to access that one service without purchasing into the full package (rumored to be as high as $50 or more).
As for the pirate sites? Take a good look at the Tik Tok ban that has gotten a sudden push. I’ve talked about it a few times. Piracy sites and potentially even legal VPNs have been in and around those talks. If the largest hedge funds in the world are invested in certain properties, they will look at ways revenue is being lost.
So, let me know. Do you feel that this affects you in any way? Is a scenario without broadcast or cable a sustainable business model for NHL viewership?
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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