Major League Baseball (MLB) has secured agreements with major cable and satellite providers to continue offering games from the Arizona Diamondbacks, starting with Tuesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves.
The deals come after the Diamondbacks’ prior telecast rights holder, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports, asked a federal judge to dissolve its agreement with the professional baseball team as part of the sports network’s ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The games were offered on Bally Sports Arizona, which is operated by Diamond Sports.
The Diamondbacks are listed as one of Diamond Sports’ major creditors, with more than $30 million owed as of March 2023. It was not clear how the shifting telecast agreement impacted Diamond Sports’ ongoing debt payments to the team.
Things are more clear in terms of who will offer Diamondbacks games from Tuesday on, with MLB forging agreements with several cable providers, Fubo and DirecTV satellite and streaming to continue offering live events.
From Tuesday through the end of the season, viewers in the Diamondbacks broadcast market will be able to access live and repeat games on the following channels:
- Cox Cable (Phoenix and nearby): Channel 4
- Cox Cable (Tucson and nearby): Channel 7
- DirecTV: Channel 686-3
- Mediacom: Channel 159 (SD) and 764 (HD)
- Orbitel: Channel 225 (SD) and 925 (HD)
- Spectrum: Channel 304 (HD)
- Comcast Xfinity: Channel 1261 (HD)
- Optimum (Flagstaff and nearby): Channel 41
- Optimum (Payson & Sedona): Channel 46 (SD) and 246 (HD)
- TDS (Alamogordo): Channel 30 (SD) and 134 (HD)
- TDS (Carlsbad): Channel 66 (SD) and 130 (HD)
- TDS (Ruidoso): Channel 22 (SD) and 121 (HD)
- TDS (Socorro): Channel 54 (SD)
- TDS (Truth or Consequences): Channel 66 (SD) and 130 (HD)
- TDS TV Plus: Channel 243
In addition to the cable providers, Diamondbacks games will also stream on DirecTV Stream and Fubo. Games will also be streamed for free on MLB.com and dbacks.com through July 23, at which point they will become available on MLB.TV, which costs $20 a month for a single team subscription.
DEAL: Get $30 off a new DirecTV Stream subscription by clicking or tapping this link.
“By offering a direct-to-consumer streaming option on MLB.TV in the club’s territory for the first time, MLB is able to lift the blackout for Diamondbacks games previously distributed on Bally Sports Arizona,” a spokesperson for MLB said in a statement.
The agreements help put Diamondbacks games in front of 5.6 million households in the region where the games are locally televised.
“We’re committed to maintaining our sports leadership across the many different communities we serve,” Rob Thun, the chief content officer at DirecTV, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Diamondbacks have had an outstanding season thus far, and we want to ensure their fans can continue to access these games while we do the work behind the scenes with the team, MLB and any other would-be rights holders to deliver all of the action.”
