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Wolves changing their TV plans?

Minnesota Timberwolves games will air locally on Bally Sports North this season, but their future with the regional sports network is unclear as Diamond Sports Group remains contentious in bankruptcy court.

After the Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that they are moving forward with Bally Sports North and adopting an independent streaming plan that will see their games produced and distributed through MLV.TV (also available on cable, streaming and satellite providers), Timberwolves insider Dane Moore suggested that Minnesota’s NBA franchise could follow suit.

“I’ve heard there will also be a change in how Wolves games are distributed,” Moore wrote in a post on “

Local teams leasing broadcast rights to Diamond Sports Group through the Bally Sports Regional Network has been a disaster in recent years as the company has found itself in contract trouble with numerous providers. Last summer, two months of Twins games were unavailable to Comcast customers due to the inability to agree on a deal that both sides considered fair.

Diamond Sports Group is trying to save itself from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with a major hearing coming in mid-November that could set the table for Diamond to split from Sinclair Broadcasting and continue as its own entity. According to Awful Announcing, Diamond would then look for a new sponsor for its regional network (presumably FanDuel).

Awful Announcing reports that Diamond owes the 12 NBA teams it manages, including the Timberwolves, a total of $253 million in rights fees for the 2024-2025 period. It’s possible that Diamond’s situation won’t improve, and if that’s the case, the court could find that Diamond owes the NBA between $163.7 million and $187.9 million instead of $253 million, which would of course lead to less revenue for the Timberwolves.

We’ll see how it all turns out. For now, the next Wolves game on TV is Sunday, October 13, when they take on Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks in a preseason game. That will air on ESPN at 5pm CT.

The Oct. 16-17 preseason games against the Bulls and Nuggets, respectively, will air on Bally Sports North. The regular season opener on October 22 against the Lakers will be broadcast nationally on TNT