Regional sports network Diamond Sports Group announced on Wednesday that it has entered into a bankruptcy protection arrangement with a consortium of creditors and that it will get cash from Amazon.com (AMZN.O) as part of an agreement for streaming services.
The agreement with creditors will provide Diamond Sports, a division of Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI.O), with $450 million in financing, part of which will be used to pay down debt and the remainder to support its operations while it completes its reorganization plan.
The company was caught between costly broadcast rights agreements and sports fans cutting their cable, so in March of last year it filed for bankruptcy.
The business added that customers can now purchase direct-to-consumer (DTC) access to Diamond’s local channels for streaming, which feature the games of over 40 major sports teams in the United States. Diamond’s principal partner will now be Amazon’s Prime Video.
Viewers of Prime Video would then have access to pre- and post-game programming for the clubs that Diamond holds DTC rights to, as well as live MLB, NBA, and NHL games.
In a related development, Diamond announced that it had achieved a settlement with Sinclair Broadcast to end the ongoing legal dispute in which it was claimed the parent company had wrongfully taken up to $1.5 billion from the regional sports industry.
In accordance with the terms of the settlement, Sinclair will give Diamond $495 million in cash as well as continuous management and transition support to help with its separation from the parent company’s activities and reorganization.