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Bally Sports Arizona

Diamond Sports Says New Local TV Deal for Phoenix Suns, Mercury Breaches Contracts, Violates Bankruptcy Laws

David Satin
David covers the biggest news stories, live events, premieres, and informational pieces for The Streamable. Before joining TS, he wrote extensively for Screen Rant and has years of experience writing about the entertainment and streaming industries. He's a Broncos fan, streams on his Toshiba Fire TV, and his favorites include "Andor," "Rings of Power," and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
Read full bio ›
David Satin

Well, that didn’t take long. Mere hours after the announcement that the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury had reached a deal to put all of their regular season games on local broadcast channels owned by Gray Television and on a local streaming platform, Diamond Sports Group has weighed in with its opinion. Spoiler alert: the sports broadcasting vertical is not happy.

DSG is the company that owns the Bally Sports brand and is responsible for operating its cluster of 19 regional sports networks (RSNs). The Suns and Mercury both broadcast their games on Bally Sports Arizona, and their games stream on the direct-to-consumer (DTC) service Bally Sports+. DSG is currently in bankruptcy court, attempting to restructure its $8 billion debt in a way that serves its creditors fairly.

“The Phoenix Suns breached our contract and violated bankruptcy law, and Diamond Sports Group will pursue all remedies against any parties that attempt to exercise control over our property interests while we reorganize,” Diamond Sports said in a statement. “This is an improper effort by the Suns to change their broadcasting partner without permitting Diamond to exercise our contractual rights.”

That certainly answers the question of whether or not DSG had signed off on the deal between the Suns and Mercury and their new local broadcasting partners. Diamond has insisted that it will keep doing business as usual while working through bankruptcy court, and has continued to broadcast NBA, NHL, and MLB games while the proceedings continue.

The fact that the NBA renewed its contract with Diamond Sports in February seemed like a complicating factor in the new local broadcasting deal for the Suns and Mercury, though it was assumed no public announcement would be made without the teams and Gray Television having all their ducks in a row first. Now, they could be in for a nasty fight with DSG.

Diamond has not been afraid to avail itself of every legal means necessary to protect the broadcasting rights it currently holds. Major League Baseball has been trying to reclaim the rights to some of its clubs for weeks, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, whose games are also televised on Bally Sports Arizona. But DSG has been able to frustrate those efforts so far, and if its legal team is able to make a successful challenge to the deal between the two basketball teams and Gray Television, the process could take a while to resolve.

Unfortunately for the Mercury, time is not a luxury they currently possess. The WNBA season starts on May 19, and under the new agreement, Mercury games were to transition to their new broadcast channels in time for their first regular season contest. That arrangement is certainly in question now, and games may stay on Bally Sports Arizona until a judge can rule on whether the deal between the Mercury, Suns, and Gray can stand or not.

In short, the saga of where Suns and Mercury games will be televised next is just beginning. Arizonans are likely hoping they’ll be on broadcast TV or available to stream locally soon, but there are plenty of obstacles ahead. The biggest is DSG’s intransigence, which will apparently get worse before it gets better.

David Satin
David covers the biggest news stories, live events, premieres, and informational pieces for The Streamable. Before joining TS, he wrote extensively for Screen Rant and has years of experience writing about the entertainment and streaming industries. He's a Broncos fan, streams on his Toshiba Fire TV, and his favorites include "Andor," "Rings of Power," and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
Read full bio ›
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