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Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones announced on social media that he wants to be President Donald Trump‘s White House press secretary. It was unclear whether Jones was joking – Trump recently named Karoline Leavitt, 27, as the youngest press secretary in history.

During the first press briefing of Trump’s second administration, Leavitt announced that Trump would speak to a wide range of media outlets with special chairs in the press room designated for “new media.”

“In keeping with this revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during the campaign, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room,” Leavitt stated.

She also mentioned that “millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from podcasts, blogs, social media and other independent outlets.”

“It’s essential to our team...

Bally Sports channels have been unavailable for Xfinity TV subscribers since the end of April, but there could finally be some progress in talks.

Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy case is seeing a new round of delays. The regional sports network (Rsn) owner is still aiming for Monday, July 29 as the date for a confirmation hearing on its reorganization plan, but ahead of that crucial day, it has reopened negotiations with Comcast, one of its most important cable distributor partners. Diamond’s Bally Sports RSNs went dark for Comcast's Xfinity TV customers at the end of April, and the reinstated discussions have caused Diamond to ask for more delays as it attempts to sway creditors to vote “yes” on its reorg plan at month’s end.

Key Details: Diamond has asked Judge Christopher Lopez to shift the voting/opt-out deadline and the plan-objection deadline by a week. The request does...

The departure of the Stars leaves Bally Sports channels with just nine NHL teams in their inventory.

The Dallas Stars are the latest professional sports team to leave the regional sports network (Rsn) ecosystem. The team will depart from its longtime broadcast partner Bally Sports Southwest starting in the 2024-25 season, as the two sides have mutually agreed to terminate their contract in bankruptcy court. The team will air live, in-market games on a new streaming service dubbed Victory+, and best of all it will be free to watch for viewers in the team’s broadcasting footprint.

Key Details: Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group agreed to allow the Stars out of their broadcasting contract last week. Victory+ will be an ad-supported streaming service that carries Stars games in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. The team is also on the hunt for a local TV deal. 7-Day Free Trial $19.99+ / month ballysports.

The judge’s patience with Diamond continues, much to the chagrin of Major League Baseball representatives.

Tuesday’s bankruptcy court hearing between Diamond Sports Group (Dsg) and the various sports leagues that partner with it played through all the greatest hits of the proceedings. MLB lawyers got upset, Diamond’s representatives asked for patience, and Judge Christopher Lopez scheduled yet another hearing to see if the issues could be resolved ahead of the July 29 confirmation hearing for Dsg’s reorganization plan. The NBA, NHL, and MLB requested the hearing because they feel they can’t ascent to the reorg plan without concrete details about Diamond’s contracts with distributors like Charter Communications and Cox, but they got a disappointing answer from Judge Lopez regarding the information in those contracts, which are protected by non-disclosure agreements.

Key Details Judge Lopez told the NHL, NBA, and MLB to try and resolve issues with Diamond on their own.

Diamond’s contracts with cable and satellite distributors are protected by non-disclosure agreements, but they can be overridden by court order.

To the surprise of no one who has been following the company’s bankruptcy case for any length of time, Diamond Sports Group (Dsg) needs to head back to court. The broadcaster operates 18 Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs) and has run into a wall in its discussions with the NBA, NHL, and MLB, the three major leagues that offer regular season games on Bally Sports channels and the company’s streamer Bally Sports+. The leagues want more information about Diamond’s newly negotiated carriage contracts with Charter Communications and Directv, as well as its financing arrangement with Amazon. The league’s demands have led Diamond to request an emergency hearing on Tuesday to put the issues in front of Judge Christopher Lopez.

Key Details: Diamond cannot give the...

The latest salvo from MLB is another indication that the league is eager to be quits with Diamond as a broadcasting partner.

Anyone following the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy case since the company filed for Chapter 11 protections in March 2023 knows that its relationship with Major League Baseball is not an amicable one. The MLB is anxious to get its teams away from Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs), as cord-cutting has made the entire Rsn model highly unstable. Diamond’s reorganization plan for emerging from bankruptcy as a going concern hinges on its ability to make a new carriage deal with Comcast, but the last deal between the two lapsed without an extension or new agreement being reached. Now, Bally Sports channels are unavailable for Comcast cable subscribers, and MLB lawyers joined with NBA and NHL representatives at a virtual bankruptcy court hearing this week to express their concerns with the way Diamond is proceeding.

The carriage agreement is an important part of Diamond’s bankruptcy reorganization plan, but it’s not done locking up major TV providers.

Diamond Sports Group is ticking off boxes as it heads toward the end of its bankruptcy proceedings. The company owns and operates 18 Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs), and has been attempting to work out a viable plan for leaving the shelter of Chapter 11 protections since March 2023. Puck News reporter John Ourand reports that this week, Diamond has agreed to a new carriage deal with Directv that will keep Bally Sports channels available to subscribers of the satellite service for multiple years to come, which will be critical in convincing its creditors to approve its bankruptcy reorganization plan.

Key Facts: Directv, Comcast and Charter account for 81% of the audience of Bally Sports channels. Diamond’s carriage deal with Comcast expires April 30. Directv houses Bally Sports channels on...

Judge Christopher Lopez called Dsg’s latest agreements with its debt holders as a “big step forward” for the company’s future hopes.

It wasn’t all that long ago that it seemed like Diamond Sports Group (Dsg) was circling the drain. The sports broadcasting company — which owns and operates 18 regional sports networks (RSNs) under the Bally Sports brand, as well as the Bally Sports+ streaming service — seemed to be aligning its affairs in bankruptcy court to wind down operations after the conclusion of 2024. However, according to reporting from Sportico, after a good day in court this week, the company appears more likely to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings as a going concern in the coming months.

Diamond got approval to obtain $450 million in financing on Monday. The company has deals in place with the NBA, NHL, and MLB for the 2023-24 seasons. If Diamond emerges from bankruptcy, an investment from...

The enmity between Major League Baseball and Diamond Sports Group was on full display on Wednesday this week, as the two sides met in a long-planned emergency hearing to determine how much of its contracts Dsg had to pay to four MLB teams.

At first, Dsg wanted to pay only half of what it owed to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers, then upped the number to 75%. But on Thursday, Judge Christopher Lopez ruled Diamond has to pay those teams the full amount they're owed, which could lead to the company simply rejecting their contracts instead.

7-Day Free Trial $19.99 / month ballysports.com

Reporting from The Athletic indicates that as part of the proceedings, MLB outside counsel forced Dsg representatives to reveal that Diamond’s nascent streaming platform Bally Sports+ — which provides in-market streaming of games without the need for a pay-tv subscription for five MLB, 16 NBA,...

Things have gone from bad to worse for Diamond Sports Group (Dsg), the company that operates the Bally Sports collection of regional sports networks (RSNs) that primarily broadcast Major League Baseball, NBA, and NHL games for teams across the country. In March, Diamond declared bankruptcy, but after arguing in court this week that it should be able to pay a lower rate to maintain the broadcast rights of four MLB teams, after a two-day emergency hearing, Judge Christopher Lopez ruled that the company must pay the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Texas Rangers in full “in the ordinary course of business.”

7-Day Free Trial $24.99+ / month via amazon.com

Diamond’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting Group (Sbg), took on $8 billion in debt to purchase the RSNs from Fox in 2019, but has seen their individual and collective value decrease significantly in the four years since, exacerbated by the streaming boom that coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Major League Baseball and Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group (Dsg) headed back to court this week for a scheduled emergency hearing. MLB will try to make its case that it deserves to reclaim the broadcasting rights to all 13 teams that Diamond currently holds, while Diamond will try to convince the judge those contracts are worth less now than they were when signed, and that it should only have to pay reduced broadcasting fees to the individual teams.

The hearing began on Wednesday and will conclude Thursday when Judge Christopher Lopez hands down his ruling. According to Front Office Sports, the biggest shock came when MLB commissioner Rob Manfred took the stand and claimed that before Dsg headed to court to secure bankruptcy protections, he got a visit from David Smith, executive chairman of Dsg parent company Sinclair Broadcasting Group. Smith wanted the streaming rights to all teams Dsg held the broadcasting rights to,...