Los Angeles Dodgers v San Diego Padres

Staff

Houston Astros v New York Yankees

Pirates Skenes Debut Baseball

other

Milwaukee Brewers v Arizona Diamondbacks

Stringer

FILE PHOTO: MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers-Press Conference

Contract Photographer

Brewers Cardinals Baseball

Diamond Sports Bankruptcy Baseball

Los Angeles Dodgers v Arizona Diamondbacks

Twins Angels Baseball

Shohei Ohtani

Aaron Boone,Hunter Wendelstedt

MLB Seoul Series: LA Dodgers  vs San Diego Padres

For The Washington Post

Orioles Red Sox Baseball

California Ohtani Gambling Baseball

Cleveland Guardians v Seattle Mariners

Cleveland Guardians v Oakland Athletics

The Washington Post

Investment or ‘predatory loan’? Innovative firm puts athletes and agents on edge.


KC-Stadiums

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Eighth-inning decision burns the Nats in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox

The Wizards will pick second in the NBA draft. Here’s whom they could take.

Mistakes pile up, leaving the Nationals with a 3-2 loss at Fenway Park

Ask Amy: Dad hurt by daughter publicly reconnecting with her biological family

Miss Manners: Should I accept offered seat swaps when I’m flying for free?

Carolyn Hax: What’s the real cost of going halfsies on a modest engagement ring?

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

RFK Jr.’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

U.S.-China talks on AI risks set to begin in Geneva

Web publishers brace for carnage as Google adds AI answers

Fooled by AI? These firms sell deepfake detection that’s ‘REAL 100%.’ 

Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok? Take our quiz.

5 myths about Social Security as the program faces a funding crisis

Social Security has to be fixed. But you still need your own savings.

Trump insults N.Y. case prosecutor at Jersey Shore rally

Blinken: U.S. ‘would not support’ Israeli invasion of Rafah

2024 elections latest updates: Biden seeks to put focus on health care, infrastructure

Democratic group starts attacking Trump with abortion rights testimonials 

Middle East conflict live updates: Israeli forces advance in Rafah, Health Ministry says Gaza hospital system will collapse in hours

Why Spain will recognize a Palestinian state

Far-right German party may threaten democracy, can be spied on, court rules

Pete Buttigieg’s view from the middle seat

The case for eating at Italian gas stations

5 big travel lessons from an accomplished conservationist

Retired cop meets abandoned baby he helped 23 years ago: ‘What are the odds?’

I used to dismiss my mom’s advice. Then I found a note she wrote before she died.  

Photos of his mom at lunch are a balm people didn’t know they needed

No, Apple, people do not want tech to crush everything in its path 

The urgent air defense lessons of April 16 

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

US President Joe Biden Departure

Jeff Roberson

Comcast dropped 15 regional sports networks Tuesday night in the latest shake-up of the sports TV landscape.

The channels are owned by Diamond Sports, which has the broadcast rights to 38 teams from MLB, the NBA and the NHL. The impasse with Comcast could affect Diamond’s ability to emerge from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/03/15/diamond-sports-bankruptcy/" target=_blank>years-long bankruptcy proceedings</a> and could have a significant impact on all three leagues.

Some fans lost access to the channels in the middle of watching their teams late Tuesday night. Diamond airs games on Bally’s casino-branded networks in markets including Detroit, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Southern California.

The crux of the dispute, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions, is Comcast’s desire to move the networks to a more expensive tier of channels, as it has done in recent months with RSNs in Seattle and Pittsburgh and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/03/08/masn-comcast-orioles-nationals/" target=_blank>Mid-Atlantic Sports Network in the Washington area</a>. Those deals gave subscribers the option to pay a higher monthly fee to watch their teams.

Diamond balked at those terms, which led to dueling statements from the companies Wednesday.

“It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast instead pulled the signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams,” Diamond said.

Diamond directed customers to other video packages where its channels are still available, including Fubo and DirecTV.

Comcast countered: “We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they work through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the term for another year, which they opted to not exercise. We’d like to continue carrying their networks, but they have declined multiple offers and now we no longer have the rights to this programming.”

Comcast added that it would offer $8 to $10 rebates per month to its customers.

The dispute is part of the ongoing dissolution of the cable bundle, which for the better part of the past three decades has fueled much of the financial growth in sports. At the end of 2019, Comcast, the second-largest cable carrier in the United States, had 21.3 million video customers; today, it has 13.6 million. In the first quarter of this year alone, Comcast lost 487,000 video customers.

Last year, ESPN <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/09/08/espn-blackout-charter/" target=_blank>went dark on Charter Communications</a> before the football season, though the sides eventually worked out a deal. Earlier this year, Diamond <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240403612159/en/Diamond-Sports-Group-Reaches-Multi-Year-Distribution-Agreement-with-Charter" target=_blank>announced it had reached a new carriage deal</a> with Charter that would require only new customers to pay for the more expensive sports tier.

Diamond has submitted a plan to a bankruptcy court in Texas that hinges in part on getting its channels distributed across its markets. How the company would maneuver through those proceedings without a deal with Comcast is unclear.

The commissioners of MLB, the NBA and the NHL have spoken publicly about the importance of finding new media distribution models for teams in their local markets. Last year, MLB took over broadcast distribution for the San Diego Padres after Bally canceled its contract.

“It’s a great business model when a whole bunch of people pay for something they don’t really care if they have or not, which is what the cable bundle did for us,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred <a href="https://theathletic.com/4409306/2023/04/14/mlb-streaming-tv-blackouts/?source=emp_shared_article" target="_blank">said last year</a>. “It’s hard to replicate that.”

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing

Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA

Ithaca College

Ben Strauss covers sports and media for The Washington Post.

Ben Strauss

washpost

Comcast drops 15 Bally’s Sports networks amid dispute

the-washington-post

name

prism://prism.query/site-with-wires,/sports/mlb&limit=20

Your source for Washington Nationals &amp; MLB baseball news and information. Stay updated on the latest Washington Nationals news!

Major League Baseball

prism://prism.query/site,/sports/nationals&limit=3

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/sports&limit=20

Sports

The Washington Post Sports section provides sports news, video, scores, analysis and updates about high school, college, and pro sports teams, including the Capitals, Nationals, Washington Football Team, United and Wizards. Post Sports also offers blogs and discussions about the latest sports news.