Breaking: Phoenix Suns Departing Bally Sports Arizona for Broadcast Channels as New TV, Streaming Deals Take Hold

Bally Sports Arizona may not have any teams’ games left to broadcast by the end of business on Monday. The channel will lose broadcasts of Phoenix Suns games in starting with the 2023-24 NBA season, as its new broadcasting deal with Gray Television — first announced in late April — has become official, according to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand.

Starting this fall, Suns’ games will air on local broadcast channels throughout the state of Arizona. This means that in-market users will no longer need a cable or satellite subscription to watch the team’s regular season games. This spring, the independent streaming company Kiswe was contracted to produce a streaming service for Suns as well, and has been awaiting the outcome of negotiations between Diamond Sports Group — Bally Sports Arizona’s parent company — and the Suns to go ahead with those plans.

Ourand reports that Bally Sports Arizona could not match Gray Television’s offer to the Suns in terms of distribution of the team’s games, which will now be shown in 2.8 million homes across the state. Diamond objected to the deal between Gray and the Suns in bankruptcy court when it was first announced, saying it violated the company’s rights while going through bankruptcy proceedings. The judge in the case agreed in part, saying DSG at least had the right to match Gray’s offer if it could.

Now, the Suns will join the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury on Gray-owned stations KTVK (Arizona’s Family 3TV), KPHO (Arizona’s Family CBS5), and the statewide KPHE (AZ Family Sports Network). Kiswe has assumed responsibility for streaming Mercury games this summer, and its chief strategy officer confirmed to The Streamable that the company would be ready if the Suns’ rights became available once again.

“We are at the ready to support any team who has a need for local, direct-to-consumer [and] has the rights available,” he said.

The new arrangement between the Suns and Gray is just the latest example of an NBA team leaving its regional sports network (RSN) in favor of traditional over-the-air channels. In late June, the Utah Jazz announced they would depart AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain for the Sinclair-owned broadcast network KJZZ, which is available statewide. As part of the deal, Sinclair agreed to create an in-market streaming option for Utah fans.

Bally Sports Arizona might lose another of its major league teams in the coming days as well. The channel is the current in-market home of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, but the two sides have a hearing scheduled for Monday, July 17 to determine whether the team’s games will remain on the channel. Arizona and Diamond Sports Group have been negotiating on a new carriage deal, but MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has threatened to veto any such arrangement.