Twins officially will remain on Bally Sports North this season

A federal bankruptcy judge said Friday he will approve the Twins’ contract with Bally Sports North to televise their games for one more season, saying the deal “provides some comfort to the fans who want to know how to see their team.”

Comfort, perhaps. Options, no.

The ruling, which also applied to new one-year deals for the Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers, means fans in Minnesota with satellite or cable subscriptions that include BSN will be able to watch Twins games in exactly the same manner they have for decades. But the one-year contract also specifically states that neither BSN nor any other distribution partner can stream games over the internet for a separate fee.

That’s a big disappointment to the Twins, who had said establishing a direct-to-consumer option for the upcoming season was a top priority. But the back-and-forth uncertainty of the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, parent company of 19 regional sports networks including BSN, forced the Twins, whose contract with Bally Sports North expired in October, to settle for one more year of the status quo while they explore other partnerships.

Chief among them: an effort by Major League Baseball to offer an app that would allow fans to buy individual games, entire seasons or any portion in between for streaming on their TVs or other devices. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday in Orlando that he expects the league to begin offering such an option, with as many as 14 teams involved at the start, in 2025.

In the meantime, it’s also possible, given Diamond’s recently announced intention to remain in business by selling part of its business to Amazon for its Prime Video service, that MLB could be convinced to allow Amazon to stream some teams’ games later this summer, once that deal is official. But for the Twins, joining MLB’s streaming option next season appears far more likely.

The Twins declined to comment on the ruling Friday, For now, at least they know with relative certainty where their games will be broadcast, and how much they will be paid for them. It’s believed to be a major reduction from the $54 million that the Twins collected from BSN last season, but Andrew Goldman, the attorney for DSG, asked the court to keep the contracts under seal to avoid details being made public.

The Twins have admitted they have are cutting their player payroll, which reached a record $154 million last season, due to the loss of broadcasting revenue. An attorney for the Rangers estimated that local broadcasts provide between 20 and 30% of their operating revenue each year. The Guardians and Rangers had long-term deals with Diamond that the networks had threatened to terminate as too expensive. Their new deals, which include reported 15% cuts in rights fees, will end this October, allowing those teams to find new partners.

Diamond’s contracts with the Twins, Guardians and Rangers are “a huge step forward” in DSG’s path toward emerging from bankruptcy and staying in business after 2024, said Judge Christopher Lopez, who conducted Friday’s hearing in Houston. But the business’s plan for the future still must be approved by creditors who are owed several billion dollars.