The New Orleans Pelicans get a timely payout from Diamond Sports Group

The Pelicans received a rights charge from Diamond Sports Group, enabling their games for the 2023-24 season to be televised by Bally Sports New Orleans. Pelicans SVP Greg Bensel confirmed that they strategy to have Bally’s Sports broadcast their games this season, and have currently had numerous pre-production conference calls with Bally’s Sports employees.

Diamond Sports Group, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, has left its 15 NBA teams in limbo as they face a court deadline to craft a reorganization strategy. Having said that, NBA executives see the most up-to-date improvement with the Pelicans as promising.
Most of the 15 teams with Bali’s contracts will not get their payments till October or November. The NBA has assured the teams that in the occasion of non-payment by the Diamonds, all games will be streamed by means of the NBA app. Having said that, teams will want to immediately come across a network companion to broadcast games on linear tv, which the Jazz and Suns have currently achieved.

There is concern amongst NBA teams about how the missed payment will impact their franchise, provided that Diamond’s annual salary is about $40 million per group. Teams would have to make up lost income by means of direct-to-customer ad sales and streaming packages, and would have to negotiate with their linear partners to share production charges. Though the teams think they can turn about immediately if necessary, financially it would not be feasible to attain the identical level as ahead of in the very first couple of years. The broadcasting company must be constructed gradually.