KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The details haven’t been worked out, but Amazon has a tentative deal in place with Diamond Sports Group that could move streaming rights for Kansas City Royals games into the Prime Video ecosystem, a team spokesperson confirmed.
It’s the latest foray into sports broadcasting for Amazon — the online retail giant, which already broadcasts NFL’s Thursday Night Football, select New York Yankees games, and will have a package as a part of the NWSL’s new media rights agreement beginning in 2024 among other national and international properties.
Royals fans who currently watch games via cable or satellite packages shouldn’t be impacted, but former Bally’s Sports+ customers should expect changes — at some point.
It's unclear when Royals games might be available on Prime Video or how much it would cost, but the AP said it's "unlikely that this content would be available as benefit included for current Prime subscribers."
The arrangement would be more like Apple TV's deal with MLS, which requires an upgraded subscription to watch soccer games.
Diamond Sports, which owns and operates Bally’s Sports Kansas City among other regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy in March 2023.
That imperiled broadcasts for the 2023 season, though only the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks experienced interruptions.
Diamond Sports made its payments to the Royals and continued to air games, but that could change in the digital space amid the new partnership with Amazon.
Amazon would invest $115 million in Diamond Sports, a former Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary, under the terms of a restructuring agreement, which requires a bankruptcy judge’s approval.
Diamond Sports announced the terms of the agreement Wednesday morning before presenting the restructuring agreement to Judge Christopher Lopez, a U.S. Bankruptcy judge for the South District of Texas, during a hearing in Houston, The Associated Press reported.
But the timing of when games might be available on Amazon’s video service remains uncertain.
The AP reported that Amazon would have direct-to-consumer streaming rights for the Royals and four other MLB teams — Detroit, Miami, Milwaukee and Tampa Bay — under the agreement.
Diamond Sports owns 18 networks under the Bally Sports banner. Those networks have the rights to 37 professional teams, including 11 MLB teams along with 15 NBA and 11 NHL teams, according to the AP.
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