“Here, they are getting lunch — using the right to create content based on the Rangers’ baseball games, and in turn selling that content to distributors — but without paying for it,” the joinder motion states. “There is an arms’ length agreement negotiated between a willing buyer and a willing seller that tells us the price of lunch.
In the short term, nothing is likely to change for those who want to watch Rangers’ games on TV. Either they subscribe to one of the few providers to carry BSSW or they are out of luck. The Rangers’ motion, along with the one filed by MLB, set the stage for clubs to potentially enter into or continue discussions and negotiations with potential alternative counterparties to Diamond Sports.
In the longer term, the Rangers have joined other MLB teams in essentially saying: “Pay us or release us.”According to the Rangers’ motion: “The Debtors have argued in response to the Motion to Compel that, pending assumption or rejection of their broadcast agreements, they only owe the fair market value of benefits received under those agreements, which they contend is less than the agreed contract rate.
The Rangers received a quarterly payment as scheduled on Feb. 15, the motion states, and filed a motion to terminate the agreement just beforeThe Rangers and Diamond executed a 30-day “standstill agreement” on March 16 in which the Rangers agreed not to take any further action, according to the motion.
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