Bally Sports Sun to continue airing Heat games through 2024-25 season

Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of Bally Sports, will continue to broadcast regional games for more than a dozen franchises, including the Miami Heat, according to court filings Friday.

The agreement will also be carried out for nine NHL franchises, including the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 12 additional NBA franchises, whose rights will be retained through 2024-25, include:

Detroit Pistons
Milwaukee Bucks
Cleveland Cavaliers
Minnesota Timberwolves
Los Angeles Clippers
Atlanta Hawks
Oklahoma City Thunder
Orlando Magic
San Antonio SPurs
Indiana Pacers
Memphis Grizzlies
Charlotte Hornets

The Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns are three NBA franchises whose rights have been terminated. New Orleans announced earlier this month they would be in a multi-year partnership with Gray Television, while the Suns and Mavericks are opting toward a local streaming approach, according to Daniel Kaplan of Awful Announcing.

“We have reached a new agreement with Diamond Sports Group for the 2024-25 season in which Diamond RSNs will telecast local games for 13 NBA teams,” the NBA said in a statement, according to Kaplan. “The Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans declined to continue distributing their games on Diamond RSNs and will share more details soon on how to watch games for the upcoming season in their respective markets. This new agreement is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.”

Diamond Sports reportedly delayed its court hearing multiple times–once in June, and another in July–in order to try to work out agreements with several NBA and NHL franchises. Perhaps this agreement could re-build into another big partnership between Diamond, NBA and NHL beyond just the 2024-25 season.

Eric Reid and John Crotty are the two primary Heat broadcasters for Bally Sports Sun, an affiliate of Bally Sports that holds the regional television rights for the Heat, Lightning and Tampa Bay Rays.

Reid has been the Heat’s play-by-play broadcaster for Fox and Bally since the franchise’s inaugural season in 1988-89; Crotty, an 11-year NBA veteran who played for Miami in 1996-97, took over for former Heat coach and broadcaster Tony Fiorentino at the beginning of the 2017-18 season.