MLB rights holders refuse to pay for television deal and force baseball chiefs into drastic action
THE San Diego Padres and Bally Sports partnership is over.
San Diego’s broadcast partner Diamond Sports Group has decided not to publish games anymore, forcing Major League Baseball to step in.
GettyThe San Diego Padres broadcast partner quit[/caption]
APFans can watch games for $19.99 monthly or $74.99 for the rest of the regular season[/caption]
Diamond, the Sinclair subsidiary under the company Bally Sports, elected not to pay its payment to the Padres this month.
The company was given a grace period, which ended on Tuesday, and changes were made immediately.
The company released a statement on the decision:
“Not to provide additional funding to the San Diego RSN that would enable it to make the rights payment to the San Diego Padres during the grace period and will no longer be broadcasting Padres games after Tuesday.”
Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins was the final broadcast of Padres games on the sports network.
That forced the MLB to do something that had never been done.
On Wednesday and the rest of the year, the MLB will air the Padres games through the league’s streaming service and on different cable channels.
San Diego is the first team that MLB had to take over their production because of the team’s broadcasts.
However, it may not be a bad thing.
The MLB said this new method increases the Padres’ reach from 1.13million to about 3.2million homes within the team’s TV territory.
The new package provided by MLB will supply Padres games through its MLB.TV app.
Fans can stream games for $19.99 monthly or $74.99 for the rest of the regular season on MLB.com and Padres.com.
The MLB will also lift the blackout rules for games previously distributed on Bally Sports San Diego.
