NEW YORK — A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday blocked the NBA’s Phoenix Suns from moving ahead with a television and streaming rights deal for its basketball games, saying the team violated the rights of its current broadcast partner, the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group.
The Suns and Phoenix Mercury last month announced they would broadcast future games to free television and online streaming through a partnership with Gray Television Inc GTN.N and video technology startup Kiswe.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, however, ruled that the company could not yet move on from its existing contract with Diamond Sports Group, a bankrupt subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group SBGI.O that broadcasts games through its Bally Sports TV channels.
U.S. bankruptcy law protects debtors from having their contracts modified or terminated without their consent, and Lopez ruled that the Suns’ new TV deal was void because it interfered with the Diamond Sports’ contractual right to negotiate contract extension.
Lopez did not award Diamond Sports monetary damages on Wednesday, but said that he would consider a request for damages at a later hearing.
The Suns’ attorneys argued that its TV deal with Diamond expired with the end of the 2022-2023 regular…
