Bloomberg reported that Apple and competitors are in talks to secure streaming rights to NBA games after Bally Sports filed for bankruptcy.
Local NBA streaming rights are up for grabs after Diamond Sports Group’s Bally Sports fell by the wayside. Disney, Amazon, and YouTube are among those interested in picking up the sports league’s games, but only if they ‘obtain a critical mass of teams’ to make the deal worthwhile.
Diamond Sports Group was unable to make an interest payment which resulted in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the same time, the organization wasn’t able to keep up with several MLB teams and missed a deadline payment while surrendering a team in July.
Apple and others are opting for negotiations that can unlock more teams. Diamond Sports has $8.6 billion owed for broadcasting rights to 42 teams in MLB, NBA, and NHL. There’s still a chance that the proposal will fail as companies tend to do a wholesale deal on their own terms.