THE BRIGHT SIDE
Lake Geneva, and all of Southern Wisconsin, will see a shift in sports coverage and broadcasting soon.
Prime Video is to become the home of the Bally Sports streaming service. In bankruptcy court, Diamond Sports Group (DSG), which runs the Bally Sports collection of regional sports networks, announced a restructuring agreement that would include Amazon as a partner. As part of the deal, the tech giant will receive a 15 percent stake in the business and offer customers the ability to subscribe to DSG’s streaming services directly via Prime Video. The deal announced still requires court approval, which would see Amazon as a minority partner in initially kicking in $115 million, with the option of investing $50 million at a later date, allowing the company to provide direct-to-consumer streaming that Diamond has rights to. That total is part of a $450 million restructuring settlement with parent company Sinclair which would allow DSG to pay off some of the debt owed to creditors.
The Bally Sports name will also be retired at the end of 2024, with DSG’s ten-year US$85 million sponsorship deal with the casino and gaming firm coming to an end six years early. In total, the Bally Sports branded family of networks hosts 37 clubs on traditional linear television (11 with MLB, 11 with the NBA, and 15 with the NHL). The streaming rights that Amazon would have access to include all clubs with deals in the NBA (Bucks, Cavaliers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Hawks, Heat, Hornets, Magic, Mavericks, Pacers, Pelicans, Pistons, Spurs, Thunder, Timberwolves) all clubs with deals in the NHL (Blue Jackets, Blues, Ducks, Hurricanes, Kings, Lightning, Panthers, Red Wings, Stars, Predators, Wild), but just five MLB clubs (Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Tigers). Should the court approve the deal, the NBA and NHL would not be impacted until the 2024-25 season.
The 29th Annual Winterfest is getting ready to begin.
This year is the first year that the event is starting a day later than planned. Instead of the event starting on Wednesday, the 31st it will begin on Thursday, February 1, 2024. The warmer temperatures and sunshine have the festival hosts and the sculpting teams a little nervous, as melting could cause issues. Creative ideas on how to keep the blocks of snow as cold as possible are in the works. The winter festival highlights the National Snow Sculpting Competition. The fifteen snow sculpting teams from all over the country will start the event with a “tools up” ceremony at 10 a.m. on Thursday and carve away until “tools down” is called at 11 a.m.
Watching the larger-than-life snowblocks get carved into wonderful pieces of art is great fun. This year, with the event starting a day later, the teams will have one less day to do their thing, making it a bit more intense. Winterfest 2024 runs from February 1st through February 4th and will have other great activities around Lake Geneva. The ice sculptors have become a huge attraction during the festival, with over forty different ice sculptors in front of the downtown businesses. The shops will have great retail deals and the restaurants will have delicious menu items in celebration of Winterfest. Don’t forget to warm up on the beach this weekend with hot chocolate, smores, and bonfires abounding.
