Major League Baseball takes over Diamondbacks’ game broadcasts from Diamond Sports

By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer

Major League Baseball took over the Arizona Diamondbacks’ game broadcasts after a federal bankruptcy judge granted a motion Tuesday for Diamond Sports to reject its rights agreement.

MLB took over production of the broadcasts beginning Tuesday night at Atlanta in a game the Diamondbacks won 16-13. There were some early glitches, which included closed captioning being locked on during the first hour.

MLB took over the broadcasts of San Diego Padres games May 31 after Diamond Sports missed a rights fees payment and let the grace period expire. The league set up a local media department during the offseason to prepare for a bankruptcy filing by Diamond Sports, which took place in March.

Diamond Sports, which owns 19 regional sports networks under the Bally Sports banner, determined its contract with the Diamondbacks was not profitable. It had a large rights payment due on July 1, but both sides tried to negotiate an amended agreement.

Bally Sports Arizona paid the Diamondbacks on a per-game basis for any games played after July 1.

Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Texas since March. The company said in a financial filing last fall that it had debt of $8.67 billion.

“Given the inability to reach an agreement with the Diamondbacks and MLB, we have rejected that rights contract, which had financial terms that were not aligned with Diamond’s long-term plans,” Diamond Sports Group said in a statement. “We value the relationships we have built with the Diamondbacks and their passionate fans, and we wish them the best going forward.

“We are continuing to broadcast games for all other teams under contract without disruption and we anticipate making all rights payments to the remainder of the MLB teams in our portfolio through the end of this season.”

Fans in the Diamondbacks’ home television market will be able to watch games on DirecTV, Cox, Spectrum/Charter, Xfinity/Comcast, Mediacom, Orbitel, Optimum/Suddenlink, TDS and Fubo. MLB will also offer a direct-to-consumer streaming subscription for $19.99 per month or $54.99 for the rest of the season by registering at MLB.TV.

Diamondbacks games through Sunday will be available for free with an MLB login at MLB.com, Dbacks.com and in the MLB apps on mobile and connected devices.

The Diamondbacks signed a 20-year, $1.5 billion contract with Fox Sports Networks in 2015. Diamond Sports Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. for nearly $10 billion in 2019. Disney was required by the Department of Justice to sell the networks for its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets to be approved.

Diamond Sports said in a recent filing that it loses significant amounts of money under the agreement with the Diamondbacks and that the deal “no longer fits” within its long-term plans.

The Diamondbacks are a part owner of Bally Sports Arizona. After years of struggling, the Diamondbacks are one of the surprise teams in baseball this season with a 52-42 record.

MLB said in a release that Arizona’s games will be available in approximately 5.6 million homes in its local market, a 506% jump in reach. MLB also noted that Padres viewership has increased by 9.5% to an average of 578,000 viewers since it took over distributing games.

With the Diamondbacks off Bally Sports, Diamond has the rights to 38 professional teams — 12 baseball, 14 NBA and 12 NHL.

The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes are the only team left on Bally Sports Arizona. The network did not exercise its right of first refusal to renew its deal with the Phoenix Suns, who are moving their games to local television and Kiswe, a streaming service.

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