Will Arizona Diamondbacks Join Phoenix Suns, Mercury on Local Broadcast Channels Now That They’re Leaving Bally Sports?

There may be some tense conversations at the next MLB owners’ meeting, but commissioner Rob Manfred got his way. The Arizona Diamondbacks will reportedly see their broadcasting contract rejected by Diamond Sports Group (DSG) in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week, meaning that the team’s games will be pulled from Bally Sports Arizona in the coming days, if not as early as Tuesday night.

For the rest of the 2023 regular season, Diamondbacks games will be sent to as-yet-unidentified cable channels with various providers in the Arizona market. MLB has indicated that it has agreements in place with cablers so that broadcasts will be uninterrupted, just in different places. The league will very likely use its normally out-of-market streaming platform MLB.TV to offer an in-market streaming option as well.

But what about after this season? Are the Diamondbacks guaranteed to stay on cable once 2023 is over, or can it look to other professional teams that have left Bally Sports Arizona this year as a guide for the best way to bring its games to the highest number of fans?

The best path forward for the Diamondbacks might be to put their games on local broadcast channels. That’s exactly what the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury have done after the two teams agreed to a new distribution deal with broadcast channel owner Gray Television in April. It took until mid-July to finalize that deal thanks to a legal challenge from Diamond Sports Group, but because it could not match the deal Gray was offering, it eventually lost that challenge.

Now, Suns and Mercury games will be shown in 2.8 million homes across the state on KTVK (Arizona’s Family 3TV), KPHO (Arizona’s Family CBS5), and the statewide KPHE (AZ Family Sports Network). In addition, the independent streaming firm Kiswe has established an in-market streaming platform for the Mercury, and stands ready to add the Suns to that service as well.

Could the Diamondbacks follow suit? It’s possible, but the deal would have to make financial sense for the team. The contract with DSG that observers now expect to be rejected this week was signed in 2015 and was due to pay the club $1.5 billion over its 20-year term. Arizona will need to get a similar offer from a local broadcasting group if there’s any chance of the team moving off cable in 2024.

The money will be the real sticking point with MLB owners, who have already expressed a dubious willingness to help pay for any revenue losses the Diamondbacks experience from departing Bally Sports Arizona after this year. The team needs to make a clear profit from its next broadcasting contract, and cable and satellite providers are traditionally where the big money has been found.

Cord cutting has changed the game entirely, however, and the Diamondbacks may get more competitive offers from local broadcasters than many would assume. Baseball writers around the country will have an eye on the Arizona desert this winter, as the team determines its local broadcasting (and potentially streaming) future.