Bankrupt regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group is walking away from the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and shuttering yet another channel, Bally Sports Arizona, YahooFinance.com reported. The move comes after the network’s other tenants, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, all broke loose from Bally Sports and set up their own local TV arrangements. Broadcaster E.W. Scripps announced yesterday that the Coyotes would broadcast 81 of their 82 regular season games via its new Scripps Sports operation on Scripps-owned ABC affilate Channel 15.2 (KNXV.2). The Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights also entered a similar arrangement with Scripps Sports in May after fleeing now-defunct AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. “The Debtors have been conducting an ongoing analysis of their rights agreement portfolio to identify those rights agreements that are burdensome and/or otherwise unnecessary for the Debtors’ go-forward business operations,” Diamond said in a motion filed on Wednesday in the Houston federal court overseeing its restructuring.
