MLB handles the broadcasts of Arizona Diamondbacks games

A bankruptcy judge approved the Diamond Sports Group’s request to withdraw its contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, prompting Major League Baseball to step in, starting with the team’s game against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday afternoon.

As it did when it took over the San Diego Padres broadcasts at the end of May, MLB will make D-backs games available without interruption through its streaming service, MLB.TV, and will offer a linear cable option on various channels through Cox, DirecTV, Spectrum and Comcast Xfinity. Other providers such as Mediacom, Orbitel, TDS, and Optimum/Suddenlink will carry D-backs, as will streaming service Fubo.

A Diamond Sports spokesperson said its contract with the D-backs — a 20-year, $1.5 billion deal that began in 2015 — “has financial terms that are not in line with its long-term plans.”

By lifting the blackout, MLB stated that the D-backs’ reach could increase from 930,000 to 5.6 million homes in the team’s home television area. Local fans can pay $19.99 a month or $54.99 for the rest of the season to stream D-backs games; The next six games, through Sunday, will be made available for free through the team’s official website and MLB app.

MLB will use the same announcers, Steve Berthium and Bob Brinley, and is expected to deploy most of the backstage staff to keep the team broadcasting for the rest of this season.

“This decision provides us with an opportunity to partner with Major League Baseball to produce high-quality broadcasts of D-backs games on existing platforms, expand access to broadcast options, and remove the blackouts that have been a point of frustration for fans for years,” D-backs CEO Derek Hall wrote in a statement. “We have enjoyed our partnership with Bally Sports Arizona and thank them for the long-term partnership. But we look forward to providing unprecedented access to our exciting team moving forward, including access to new, significantly expanded families.”

Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair operating under the name Bally Sports, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 14 and has since let go of two of the 14 major league teams. The company wrote in a statement that it expects to “make all rights payments to the remaining MLB teams in our portfolio through the end of this season.”

Diamond Sports initially took on more than $8 billion in debt when it bought the regional sports networks for 42 teams across the MLB, NBA and NHL in 2019 and has struggled to maintain a sustainable business as the rate of cord cuts increases across the country.

Diamond Sports has continually stated that they need additional broadcast rights—they only have broadcast rights to five MLB properties—in order to support the Bally Sports+ app and generate more revenue. However, MLB has been adamant about not awarding more rights to a company that pushed itself into the position in the first place. The university hoped the teams would get their due rights fee, but also envisioned a future—perhaps as soon as the next two or three years—when most, if not all, broadcast rights would be run under a national umbrella.

The D-backs and Diamond Sports session was initially scheduled to take place on June 29, but was postponed by two and a half weeks “due to ongoing and positive discussions toward finding a solution,” Hall and Diamond Sports CEO David Breshlack wrote in a statement.

But at Tuesday’s court hearing, Diamond Sports attorney Andrew Goldman said the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on a deal that would have the backing of the commissioner’s office.

MLB has promised Bally Sports teams that it will subsidize broadcast payments up to 80% in 2023, but sources said that won’t be the case in 2024, leaving many owners potentially missing out on significant broadcast revenue at that point. In the long term, though, MLB believes controlling teams’ broadcast rights will be the best way to maximize revenue in an increasingly digital age.

This plan will continue with linebacker D.

“As Major League Baseball has proven with the Padres, we are ready to produce and distribute games to fans, including those for the Diamondbacks, starting today,” MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden wrote in a statement. “While we are disappointed that Diamond Sports Group has failed to honor its contractual agreement with another club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts for local games, improve telecasts and expand the reach of Diamondbacks games to 4.7 million homes.”