The New York Yankees have gotten back from Walt Disney Co. its 26% stake in the YES Network for $3.47 billion and together with Amazon and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, has an 80% collective stake in the channel.
YES is US' most-watched regional sports network that airs Brooklyn Nets basketball games, Major League Soccer's New York City FC games, Yankees games, and others together with more programming featuring the Yankees.
Disney, as part of its $71 billion deal to buy Fox's film and TV assets, was required to sell off Fox's 22 regional sports networks.
This paved the way for Yankee Global Enterprises to buy back YES Network shares. This deal closed in March.
Yankee Global Enterprises, the parent company of the New York Yankees, will have the majority share of 26% stake in YES, Sinclair with 20% and Amazon will have 15% with the rights to purchase more.
The rest of YES will get divided among Mubadala Capital, RedBird Capital, and The Blackstone Group.
Hal Steinbrenner, CEO of Yankee Global Enterprises, says that with this transaction, all the popular programming of the YES Network got brought closer to the organization that inspired its development.
He also added that along with their partners, they look "forward to greatly expanding the way sports content is delivered and consumed by fans everywhere."
However, Yankees games have been streamed since by the Fox app.
Randy Levine, club president of the Yankees, believes this change of ownership will not affect app streaming and believes it will last through the season.
He also said that they are expecting it to change with Major League Baseball announcing policy changes soon.
Teams currently cannot sell digital rights to local broadcasts.
MLB (Major League Baseball) remains quiet on this.
Levine also said the network has some programming getting worked out in relation to Amazon's role in the deal, but "specifics will come in the future."
It was in March that it had been reported that Amazon, currently active in seeking more sports rights, will get some form of digital rights as part of the transaction.
The e-commerce giant is into its third season as a partner in streaming National Football League's (NFL) "Thursday Night Football."
YES, the network was owned by Goldman Sachs, Providence Equity and NJ Holdings (a company then controlled by former New Jersey Nets owners Louis Katz and Ray Chambers) and Yankee Global Enterprises.
YES sold 49% of its stake to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in late 2012.
News Corp. then got divided into two companies the following year, with broadcast properties going to 21st Century Fox.
21st Century Fox raised its stake to 80% in early 2014 and Yankee Global Enterprises reduced its stake from 26% to 20 %.
YES Network President Jon Litner will continue on his role at the network.
