- DSG entered bankruptcy protection in March
- Bally Sports+ has 200k subscribers
- Arizona Coyotes allege US$18m in unpaid rights fees
Beleaguered Diamond Sports Group (DSG) suffered another setback after its Bally Sports+ direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service suffered a significant outage on Monday night.
Viewers in several markets complained they were unable to access the platform during a busy night of National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) action, with Bally Sports suggesting an issue with one of its tech providers was causing the issues.
“Our service provider experienced a widespread outage that impacted multiple partners,” Bally Sports said in a statement. “As it comes back online, signing in to Bally Sports will be impacted. We are currently working with our service provider on resolving this issue. We apologise and thank you for your patience.”
Specifically, DSG is blaming an issue with identity management service Okta for the outage. SportsPro has contacted Okta for comment.
Sinclair-owned DSG is currently in chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, hoping to restructure massive debts of up to US$8 billion by huge local rights contracts with Major League Baseball (MLB), NBA and NHL team partners.
DSG believes the long-term deals are no longer sustainable in the modern media landscape given the ongoing decline in pay-TV households. Meanwhile, many of its agreements do not include streaming rights.
Bally Sports+ is an attempt to get fans without cable to subscribe to its service. However, a recent disclosure by the company revealed it has only so far attracted 200,000 subscribers.
Meanwhile, the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes allege DSG owes them US$18 million in unpaid rights fees. DSG returned the rights earlier this year in order to shut down its “unprofitable” Bally Sports Arizona RSN.