
MLB To Produce, Distribute All San Diego Padres Games Starting Tonight Following Diamond's Missed Rights-Fee Payment Much of the freelance crew and the announcers will continue with the production By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - 3:17 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The next domino in the Diamond Sports Group saga has fallen. Starting tonight, Major League Baseball will take over production and distribution of all San Diego Padres locally distributed games. The transition comes after Diamond Sports Group (DSG), which operates Bally Sports' 19 regional sports networks, missed a rights-fee payment to the team and let the grace period expire. The new arrangement, which kicks off with the Padres' matchup against the Marlins in Miami tonight, gives fans the option to watch on television via multiple MVPDs or stream via a new DTC service hosted by MLB.TV.
MLB will deploy much of the same freelance production crew as well as the same announcers, who are employed by the team. Mobile TV Group has been tapped by MLB to provide live production services, including mobile unit 44FLEX & 44VMU. MLB EVP, Local Media, Billy Chambers says the league aims to elevate the game-broadcast experience for all Padres fans [through] new technology, better picture quality, and increased access.
The league has agreed to deals allowing local cable operators DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, Cox, Spectrum, and FuboTV to carry Padres games. The move expands the reach of Padres games from 1.130 million homes to 3.264 million homes in the Padres' home television territory, marking a 189% jump in reach.
In addition, Padres fans can obtain a new direct-to-consumer streaming subscription for $19.99 per month or $74.99 for the rest of the season by registering at MLB.TV. The offer is only for Padres fans in the home television territory and is separate from the MLB.TV out-of-market package. Offering a direct-to-consumer streaming option on MLB.TV in the club's territory for the first time, MLB is able to lift the blackout for Padres games previously distributed on Bally Sports San Diego. Games played through Sunday, June 4 will be available for free with MLB login at MLB.com and Padres.com and in the MLB apps on mobile and connected devices.
Diamond filed for bankruptcy in March and is in the midst of negotiations with the league and its teams to get access to more streaming rights. The new arrangement brings a sudden end to Bally Sports San Diego's 20-year, $1.2 billion rights deal to broadcast Padres game through 2032. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Diamond committed to pay its full rights fees over the lifetime of its contracts in exchange for streaming rights.
In a statement, DSG says the company has decided 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, May 30. While DSG has significant liquidity and has been making rights payments to teams, the economics of the Padres' contract were not aligned with the market realities. MLB forced our hand with its continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights. We are continuing to broadcast games for teams under our contracts.
As DSG's bankruptcy process proceeds, the company is expected to terminate contracts, such as with the Padres, where it loses money. This year, the league launched a local-media department led by Billy Chambers and including industry veterans Doug Johnson, Greg Pennell, and Kendall Burgess to oversee MLB's local-media production, operations, and distribution moving forward.
As Commissioner Manfred previously stated, says MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden, Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute Padres games to fans throughout Padres territory. While we're disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with the club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Padres games by more than 2 million homes.
Says Padres CEO Erik Greupner, We have been preparing for this groundbreaking moment. The Padres are excited to be the first team to partner with Major League Baseball to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option through MLB.TV without blackouts while preserving our in-market distribution through traditional cable and satellite television providers. Our fans will now have unprecedented access to Padres games through both digital and traditional platforms throughout San Diego and beyond.
More from Sports Video Group
27/06/2025
How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns
Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
Live sport is especially vulnerab...
27/06/2025
Behind the Mic: FOX Sports Ratchets Up UEFA Women's EURO 2025 With Top-Class...
27/06/2025
RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
27/06/2025
Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...
27/06/2025
Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...
27/06/2025
NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...
26/06/2025
10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...
26/06/2025
The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...
26/06/2025
Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
24/06/2025
2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...
24/06/2025
Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...
24/06/2025
Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...
24/06/2025
ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...
23/06/2025
Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...
23/06/2025
Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...
23/06/2025
Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38
Print This Story
The ball i...
23/06/2025
New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...
23/06/2025
ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...
20/06/2025
Feeling Unlimited, Part 1: Athletes Unlimited Softball League Deploys Remote Pro...
20/06/2025
A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...
20/06/2025
Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...
20/06/2025
ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...
19/06/2025
SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...
18/06/2025
Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36
Print This Story
For years, att...
18/06/2025
Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...
18/06/2025
SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...
18/06/2025
SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...
17/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...
17/06/2025
Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...
17/06/2025
From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...
17/06/2025
Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...
17/06/2025
Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...
17/06/2025
DAZN Brings Global Ambition to U.S. Soil With Production of 2025 FIFA Club World...
17/06/2025
Diversified's Christine Williamson on How UT's New State-of-the-Art Prod...
16/06/2025
Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New Productio...
16/06/2025
Behind The Broadcast Booth, Ep. 3: Golf. My Future. My Game. Founder and CEO Cra...
16/06/2025
The REMI Revolution Is Here: How Remote Production Technology in Esports Pioneer...
16/06/2025
From Super Bowl to Indy 500, New Orleans Artist Frenchy' Captures Energy of...
16/06/2025
NFL Films Enhances Post Studio With Dolby Atmos Audio Forty-three channels of audio enable the facility to migrate to immersive By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Mo...
16/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Storj's David Colantuoni on Expanding Cloud-Based...
16/06/2025
Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New OB Truck By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 2:33 pm
Pri...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Backblaze's Gleb Budman Talks Products, Partnerships, and the ...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup ...
13/06/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Vecima Networks' Paul Strickland on How Improving QoE...
13/06/2025
Pitch Perspective: Where's Next for Specialty Cameras in Soccer? Leaders from Sky Austria and ACS discuss the possibilities of camera placement pitchside B...