Amazon is poised to complete a long-expected expansion in its regional sports streaming efforts.

The online retail and streaming giant is closing in on an agreement with bankrupt Diamond Sports Group to stream most of the Bally Sports parent company’s content, according to a report in the New York Post. Fans could pay approximately $20 per month to Amazon to gain access to regional teams. The pact has been expected since early this year, and more so in recent weeks—even after Amazon dropped out of a prior agreement to provide DSG with $115 million post-exit financing to aid its emergence from bankruptcy. 

The agreement, at least at the outset, will involve 27 teams from the NBA, NHL, and MLB for which DSG has digital rights. DSG also airs games for seven other MLB teams, at least for the 2024 season, only on a linear basis as digital rights have been seen as a particularly thorny “gating issue” for some of those clubs. 

Amazon and DSG declined to comment. 

While this agreement is approaching, DSG is attempting to complete its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy. In a status conference in U.S. Bankruptcy Court earlier this week, the company received formal approval of recently completed NBA and NHL deals and said it is now targeting early- to mid-November to hold a confirmation hearing for its reorganization plan. But MLB is still expressing significant doubts, particularly around DSG’s ability to assert in a timely fashion its ability to air games in 2025. 

Before this DSG deal, Amazon had steadily expanded its presence in local sports, acquiring rights to the NHL’s Kraken to add to an existing relationship with MLB’s Yankees. Those deals are part of a portfolio that Amazon now has involving each of the top four U.S. men’s pro leagues in some fashion. 

For the teams in which it holds digital rights, DSG already offers its local content through the Bally Sports+ streaming app, costing $19.99 per month in most cases. But that product has had some notable technical issues. Amazon Prime Video, while having a much stronger reputation for reliability, would also offer a major boost in scale to reach consumers. 

Bill Belichick has joined Instagram. 

What would have been a shocking headline a decade ago is perhaps not all that surprising in 2024 for the six-time Super Bowl–winning head coach after he failed to land one of the NFL’s 32 most coveted jobs this fall. Belichick gained more than 300,000 followers on his first day on the social media app that he still facetiously dubbed “InstaFace” in his first post. 

That’s a good sign for the former coach, who is seemingly striving to prove he’s still at the top of his game by racking up as many media gigs as he can. This season, Belichick will stay in the NFL spotlight through virtually every medium available, from linear TV to streaming to radio and even, now, social media.

Channel Surfing

Belichick has already lined up a half dozen weekly media jobs during the 2024 NFL season: 

• The Pat McAfee Show: Guest interview slot each Monday on the popular, and sometimes controversial, program that airs on ESPN and YouTube
• ManningCast: Featured guest during the first half of all 11 editions of the alternate Monday Night Football telecast on ESPN2 with Peyton and Eli Manning 
• The Breakdown with Peyton and Belichick: A 30-minute ESPN+ show released each Friday, previewing that week’s upcoming MNF matchup
• Inside the NFL: Full-time cast member on the long-running show that now airs on The CW on Friday nights
• Let’s Go!: Cohost of SiriusXM show alongside Jim Gray, Peter King, and Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby. Tom Brady, the show’s former cohost, will still make some appearances on the Monday evening program
• Coach with Bill Belichick: Digital show from Underdog Fantasy featuring breakdowns on various players and teams

In addition to the media work, Belichick has also signed on as a strategic adviser for The 33rd Team, a website emphasizing NFL content from former players, coaches, and executives.

The Belichick Way

Belichick is taking a more aggressive approach to media work than other recent head coaches who have successfully returned to the NFL following a year off.

After Sean Payton stepped down from coaching the Saints, he spent the 2022 NFL season as a studio analyst for Fox before signing an $18 million annual contract with the Broncos last year. Neither Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy nor Jaguars coach Doug Pederson had any full-time media jobs during their off years in 2019 and 2020, respectively.