Major League Baseball will produce and distribute all locally distributed Diamondbacks games beginning Tuesday when Arizona faces the Braves at 7:20 p.m. ET, the league announced. Here’s what you need to know:
- The change comes after a bankruptcy court judge approved Diamond Sports Group’s rejection of its Diamondbacks deal, Front Office Sports reported Tuesday.
- MLB previously took over broadcasts of San Diego Padres games in May after Diamond missed the deadline for its rights fee payment with the team.
- Under the new arrangement, MLB is removing the blackout for Diamondbacks games previously distributed on Bally Sports Arizona. This increases the availability of games “from approximately 930,000 homes to approximately 5.6 million homes in the Diamondbacks home television territory,” the league said.
- Last week, the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, whose contracts with Bally Sports Arizona expired after last season, moved forward with a partnership with Gray Television, Inc. to create new distribution channels for games.
MLB to produce and distribute @Dbacks games starting July 18. D-backs games will be streamed free on https://t.co/Z3s2EpgF39 & https://t.co/a2P9YKAV5n through July 23. Fans in-market can watch on the following platforms: pic.twitter.com/hHKMJFaXhw
— MLB (@MLB) July 18, 2023
How can fans watch Diamondbacks games going forward?
MLB will air Diamondbacks games for free with an MLB login at MLB.com, Dbacks.com and on the MLB TV app through Sunday. After that, fans will have to pay $19.99 a month or $54.99 for a streaming subscription to cover the rest of the season. MLB also has struck local media deals with DirecTV, Spectrum, Cox, Fubo, Comcast and others.
Steve Berthiaume and Bob Brenly will maintain their positions as the team’s primary TV broadcasters.
What they’re saying
“As Major League Baseball has proven with the Padres, we’re ready to produce and distribute games to fans, including Diamondbacks games starting today,” Noah Garden, MLB chief revenue officer, said in a statement. “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.”
Backstory
Commissioner Rob Manfred said multiple times this spring that MLB has been preparing for the possibility it would need to broadcast games, and that the league would ultimately be able to handle it.
“We have taken those preparation efforts really seriously,” Manfred said in February.
“We know that we can produce games in the event that Ballys is not broadcasting. We know that we can put those games up in conjunction with MLB.tv digitally. And we are in the process of trying to work out arrangements that will put us in a position to make those games available within the cable bundle, as well. From a fan’s perspective, while it may not be whatever channel is your traditional RSN, if you think about it from a reach perspective, the games being available digitally in-market is something fans have been screaming for years.” — Evan Drellich
Required reading
(Photo: Scott Taetsch / USA Today)
