Breaking: Arizona Diamondbacks to Air Games on Local Channels Beginning Today, Following Split with Bally Sports
Breaking: Arizona Diamondbacks to Air Games on Local Channels Beginning Today, Following Split with Bally Sports
It’s officially official! The Arizona Diamondbacks have become the latest team to depart from the Bally Sports family of regional sports networks (RSNs). Judge Christopher Lopez approved Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group’s motion in U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday to surrender the Diamondback’s broadcasting rights.
Major League Baseball will now distribute the team’s games on local cable channels. The changeover will begin immediately; fans will be able to find games on these channels starting with the club’s Tuesday, July 18 game against the Atlanta Braves, which starts at 7:20 p.m. ET.
Check out the full list of new Arizona Diamondbacks broadcasters available below.
| Platform | Channels |
|---|---|
| Cox | Yurview Channels: Phoenix – Channel 4 / Tucson – Channel 7 |
| DIRECTV | Channel 686 - 3 |
| Fubo | Available |
| Spectrum/Charter | Channel 304 |
| Xfinity/Comcast | Channel 1261 |
| Mediacom | Channels 159 & 764 |
| Orbitel | Channels 225 & 925 |
| Optimum/Suddenlink | Channel 41 – Bullhead City, Flagstaff, Lake Havasu City, Parker |
| Channel 46 & 246 – Payson, Sedona, Strawberry/Pine | |
| TDS | Alamogordo – Channel 30 & 134 |
| Ruidoso – Channel 22 & 121 | |
| T or C – Channel 66 & 130 | |
| Carlsbad – Channel 62 & 736 | |
| Socorro – Channel 54 | |
| TDS TV+ – Channel 243 |
In addition to linear TV, fans will have new streaming options to watch Diamondbacks games. Fans with an MLB login can use their credentials to watch the team’s games for free on MLB.com, dbacks.com or the MLB app until Sunday, July 23. After that date, cord cutters can stream Diamondbacks games in-market on MLB.TV for a special price: $19.99 per month, or $54.99 for the remainder of the regular season. This offer is only available to fans living in the Arizona market.
“As Major League Baseball has proven with the Padres, we’re ready to produce and distribute games to fans, including Diamondbacks games starting today,” said Noah Garden, MLB Chief Revenue Officer. “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with another Club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Diamondbacks games by 4.7 million homes.”
As Garden referenced, the Diamondbacks are the second team to be pulled from a Bally Sports RSN this baseball season. The first was the San Diego Padres, who left Bally Sports San Diego for local cable channels in late May. Diamond has paid its rights fees to the other 12 teams it currently has broadcasting contracts with, but its Diamondbacks contract simply became too financially onerous for the company to keep.
Talks between DSG and the Arizona team had led to some optimism that the two sides could negotiate a new deal, causing the company to delay its surrender of the Diamondbacks’ rights for more than three weeks. But negotiations fizzled out, perhaps under the threat of a veto from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who gets the final say on all TV deals in his league.
In its statement regarding the move, MLB elected to throw some shade toward Diamond and Bally Sports Arizona, noting that Diamondbacks games will see a 506% jump in reach now that they’re off the channel. MLB estimates the team’s games were seen in 930,000 homes on the RSN, but will now expand to approximately 5.6 million households.
“This decision provides us with an opportunity to partner with Major League Baseball to produce high quality broadcasts of D-backs games on current platforms, expand access to include streaming options, and remove local blackouts that have been a fan frustration point for years,” said D-backs President, CEO, and General Partner Derrick Hall. “We have enjoyed our partnership with Bally Sports Arizona and thank them for the longtime partnership. But we look forward to providing unprecedented access to our exciting team moving forward, including a greatly expanded reach of new households.”
Steve Berthiaume and Bob Brenly will continue to serve as the D-backs’ main announcers. MLB has seen encouraging results from its takeover of Padres games thus far, and is now hoping that more fans will jump at the chance to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks, now that the team’s games are available in millions more homes around the state.
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