MLB Sets New Local Media Department For Takeover

Major League Baseball (MLB) has announced that they’ve added three executives to its new local media department as it prepares for a possible takeover of local broadcasts for 17 teams amid the financial deterioration of the Bally and AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks.

Doug Johnson was hired as senior vice president and executive producer of local media, Greg Pennell as senior vice president of local media and Kendall Burgess as vice president of local media technical operations, the commissioner’s office said Wednesday.

Commenting on the new hires, MLB’s chief revenue officer, Noah Garden said the hires are key to address the new way of game distribution.

“These new hires are an important step in our preparation to address the changing landscape of MLB game distribution in light of the increasing challenges and pressure facing regional sports networks,” said Garden.

Diamond Sports Group, the subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group that operates networks under the name Bally Sports, has the rights to 14 major league teams and skipped about US $140 million (AUD $207 million) in interest payments due February 15.

Diamond said as of September 30 it had debt of US $8.674 billion (AUD $13 billion) and the company has nearly $1 billion in rights payments, mostly to baseball teams, due in the first quarter this year, and a bankruptcy filing is possible.

Diamond owns rights to the broadcasts for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers.

The networks told the teams they have until March 31 to reclaim their broadcast rights and if there are not deals, the networks would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

This announcement comes after MLB’s average salary has hit an all-time high of US$4.2 million.