Bankruptcy judge orders Diamond Sports to fully pay MLB teams, Padres explore new TV broadcasts.

Diamond Sports, the owner of regional sports networks, has been ordered by a bankruptcy judge to make full media rights payments to four Major League Baseball teams. The company had been looking to cut down the payments owed to the teams, which caused it to go toe-to-toe with MLB officials in bankruptcy court this week. Diamond has been pushing to hold the direct-to-consumer streaming rights to all MLB teams that air on its networks. Diamond is also facing a more than $8 billion debt load, stemming from Sinclair Broadcast Group's $10.6 billion acquisition of regional sports networks in 2019.