ST. LOUIS – Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of St. Louis Cardinals TV provider Bally Sports Midwest, does not plan to broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games during the 2025 MLB season.
Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports that Diamond Sports will discontinue broadcasts for all but one MLB team on its Bally Sports airwaves last year, citing court filings. The Atlanta Braves will remain under Diamond’s umbrella, while the company will lost its rights to 11 other teams, including the Cardinals.
The St. Louis Business Journal has also confirmed that Cardinals broadcasting deal will come to an end, following Wednesday’s court proceedings.
Diamond Sports officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023 and has attempted to restructure its operations. The Cardinals were one of nine teams who were under contract for TV broadcasts through Diamond Sports for the 2025 season, according to The Athletic.
Initial reports have not yet indicated where regional Cardinals TV broadcasts may air in 2025 or beyond.
Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III briefly addressed the Cardinals’ media rights situation during Monday’s end-of-2024-season press conference with the following remarks:
“I think the real challenge for us revenue wise is on the local media situation. As you know, there’s a whole trend where there’s a lot of cutting the cord with the cable bundle. And we’ve had our distribution challenges. The good news is, it appears as though, almost under scenario we’re looking at, the fans will hopefully have a direct-to-consumer product to get our games, basically an app where they can stream games for a fee. You’re seeing that elsewhere throughout the league. I’m really optimsitic that working with [Cardinals staff], we’re going to uncover every stone on the revenue side. … We’re working very hard to figure out how to enter this new phase of local media challenges and come out better on the other side.”
The Cardinals were nearly halfway through a TV-partner contract with Bally Sports Midwest that was expected to pay the franchise $1 billion through 2032. The contract took effect when the RSN was known as FOX Sports Midwest under different ownership.
The TV deal was a notable source of revenue for the Cardinals, who noted Monday the team was likely to decrease payroll for the 2025 season, though attributing that plan to more of a focus on player development.
Two MLB teams previously under Diamond’s umbrella, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, jumped ship well before Wednesday’s court proceedings. Both now air direct-to-consumer broadcasts through an MLB-controlled streaming platform, a possibility the Cardinals may consider replicating.
This is a developing story. FOX 2 will update as more information becomes available.