Orlando Magic fans have long been obsessed with the team's national profile.
After getting the No. 1 pick and selecting Paolo Banchero, who became an All-Star in his second year by the way, Magic fans thought they might get some attention with one of the bright young stars in the league.
Alas, the Orlando Magic have had just one traditional national TV appearance in the regular season during the last two years—a February game at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even the Orlando Magic's playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers had three games relegated to NBATV before it got the spotlight for Game 7 on ABC (as the only first-round series to make it the distance).
The league respected the Magic's record and winning. Orlando will be on national TV five times this season—plus an additional four times on NBATV. The Magic are starting to enter the national spotlight.
That still leaves 77 games to be broadcast on local TV. That itself has come with some intrigue.
The Magic's local television partner, Bally Sports Florida (owned by Diamond Sports Group and Sinclair Broadcasting), has been in an ongoing bankruptcy proceeding. Its future remains in serious risk through the protracted bankruptcy.
Several teams have left the Bally Sports family to partner with local TV stations to air their games (some have even started their own streaming services like the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz).
For now, though, it appears Magic games are not going anywhere.
Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic report Diamond Sports Group has reached an agreement with the NBA to honor its contracts through the 2025 season. The deal is pending approval from the bankruptcy judge overseeing Diamond's bankruptcy. But if it goes through, it would mean the Magic will remain on Bally Sports Florida for the upcoming season.
The team has not yet announced its local broadcast schedule. An announcement is expected soon. Bally Sports Florida typically broadcasts all Magic games excluding games on TNT or ABC, who have exclusive rights to games on their air.
The NBA announced the agreement, which is pending a bankruptcy judge's approval with a hearing slated for Sept. 3. That included an announcement that the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans opted out of the agreement and will leave the Bally Sports family of networks, suggesting the Orlando Magic will stick with Bally Sports for the next year.
The deal also set terms for Diamond Sports Group to continue airing games under a new agreement should it emerge from bankruptcy after the 2025 season. Should they still be in bankruptcy after the season ends, it is possible the league terminates its deal with the regional sports network carrier and teams seek new ways to broadcast games locally.
Wait, Bally is in bankruptcy; how are they still operating?
Bally Sports' bankruptcy has been one of the big stories in the local television sphere and in sports media for quite some time.
Diamond Sports Group, which Sinclair Broadcasting owns, bought the local television rights to the large regional sports network from FOX Sports when antitrust regulators barred Disney from purchasing the regional sports networks as part of the Disney and FOX merger in 2019.
Almost immediately, Bally faced some major financial issues. The regional sports network filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Their case has been mired in the courts ever since with uncertainty for the NBA, MLB and NHL teams that air their games on the network.
Bankruptcy is usually associated with the dissolution of a company. But it is actually a request from the courts to pause the collection of debts so they can reorganize and find ways to pay off their creditors or negotiate deals with creditors so they can pay back their debts—all under the courts' supervision.
Diamond Sports Group has been going through this massive reorganization while facing tons of new challenges such as the trend of cutting the cord on cable companies and cable company's hard line on negotiating carriage fees for sports networks (remember last year on the first day of college football when ESPN got pulled from Spectrum in a carriage dispute?).
Diamond and Bally have had difficulty negotiating carriage fees, most famously struggling to get broadcast on Comcast's Xfinity service (which is available in Orlando, but not as widespread as Spectrum or other carriers).
That part is probably a bit more than needs to be said in this space.
Diamond seems to be hoping that having stability with deals with the NBA and NHL will allow it to negotiate better carriage fees with cable companies. And that is what this deal, pending judge approval, seems to set up.
That may or may not be enough to bring Diamond out of bankruptcy. But the company appears to be hoping for a discharge from bankruptcy and the resumption of normal business operations. It pushed back a hearing in July to continue reorganization but faces key deadlines in October and November to complete this reorganization.
Fans have not loved the Bally experience
Fans have been lukewarm on the switch from the FOX Sports branding to the Sinclair-owned Diamond Sports Group and Bally Sports branding.
There are constant complaints about the channel's streaming app and its unavailability on popular non-cable services like YouTube TV. Diamond Sports Group's bankruptcy is at least in part because of some of these issues to get consistent carriage.
It is worth noting then that the Magic provide the popular broadcast team of David Steele, Jeff Turner, Dante Marchitelli and Kendra Douglas. Even if the Magic left Bally Sports, the broadcast team and experience on air at least would likely not change.
The Magic are consistently rated as one of the best local broadcast teams in the league. Magic fans love their local broadcast team. That is not going to change no matter where the Magic air.
The issue with Bally has mostly been about access, the element that is at the center of the bankruptcy proceedings.
For the upcoming NBA season, there will likely not be any changes with its on-air relationship with Bally Sports and Diamond Sports Group.
For Magic fans this year, the deal means there are likely not going to be changes to the team's viewing experience—for better or for worse.