A lawyer representing DSG indicated during a federal bankruptcy hearing Wednesday the company is prepared to walk away from the teams it can’t come to new agreements with.
“For many of these clubs, we’ve got proposals out,” Andrew Goldman said, per The Athletic. “We have provided significant diligence and projections, and our management team has had live discussions with every one of those clubs, but at the end of the day, the amended plan now puts the decision in the clubs’ hands.”
ESPN reported though an anonymous source with DSG the company was still hopeful of agreeing to new terms with the Reds and other teams.
The future of local sports broadcast rights has been up in the air for the past two years since DSG filed for bankruptcy in the wake of its business model being upended by the move of consumers away from the cable bundle.
The Reds are in the middle of a 15-year deal with Bally Sports, the successor to Fox Sports Ohio, their cable home since 1998.
The most recent extension was announced in 2016 and went into effect two years later.
In the wake of DSG’s financial problems, some teams have gone it alone with local broadcast rights and struck new deals that involve different distribution methods, including some games being available over the air on local broadcast stations and/or streaming.
MLB reportedly has expressed interest in acquiring the rights to assemble a new league-wide package of games available for fans to purchase access to.
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