Diamond, amid financial restructuring, pulled the plug on all Bally Regional Sports Networks with Xfinity after contract negotiations broke down.
MINNEAPOLIS — Life isn’t easy for a Minnesota sports fan.
There’s that decades-long title drought for most of the big market teams (besides the Lynx), but the latest installment involves Twins fans’ broadcasts going dark as the club rides the wave of a nine-game winning streak.
The troubled saga of Diamond Sports – the parent company of Bally Sports North – continues as a breakdown in contract negotiations with Comcast-Xfinity resulted in Bally’s blackout on Tuesday night. The Twins’ Wednesday afternoon game against the Chicago White Sox will be the first impacted, but likely not the last.
Comcast tells us it will proactively credit its customers $8 to 10 dollars a month while the blackout continues.
“We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they worked through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the deadline for an additional year, which they elected for failure to exercise,” Comcast said in a statement released Tuesday. “We would like to continue broadcasting on their networks, but they have turned down several offers and now we no longer have the rights to this programming. We will proactively credit our customers for the costs associated with them – most will automatically receive $8-10 per month in credits.”
Diamond blamed Comcast for the impasse and subsequent inability of sports fans to watch their favorite teams on the Xfinity Network.
“It is disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast has indicated that it intends to remove signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams,” Diamond Sports shared in a released statement. declined to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with our much larger distributors. We are a fan-first company and will continue to pursue an agreement with Comcast to restore broadcasts, and at this critical time for Diamond we hope that Comcast recognizes the important and mutually beneficial role that Diamond and [Regional Sports Networks] play in the media ecosystem.”
Diamond Sports Group said Comcast-Xfinity customers can still access its Bally Sports content through Fubo and DirecTV streams or through its Bally Sports-Plus app. Here’s the problem: Bally Sports Plus doesn’t offer Twins games.
The Twins say they have no role in the dispute. In a statement to Director of Sport Reggie Wilson overnight, the club stated: “The Twins have no role or voice in this matter. We hope that both parties can reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023 in an effort to restructure and deal with $8 billion in debt. The Twins are among a long list of professional sports teams across the country that have been affected by the blackout that began Tuesday at Comcast-Xfinity.
The question now is how long will the contractual impasse last? Bally Sports North offers games for not only the Twins, but also the Timberwolves, Lynx and Wild.
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