 | |
| Type | Regional sports network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area |
|
| Network | Bally Sports |
| Headquarters | Phoenix, Arizona |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios |
| Parent | Diamond Sports Group |
| History | |
| Launched | September 7, 1996 (1996-09-07) |
| Closed | October 21, 2023 (2023-10-21) |
| Former names |
|
Bally Sports Arizona (BSAZ) was an Americanregional sports network (RSN). The channel broadcast professional, collegiate and high school sports events, with a primary focus onPhoenix-area teams. It was available on mostcable providers throughoutArizona and available nationwide onsatellite providerDirecTV.
The network was launched asFox Sports Arizona on September 7, 1996, through a partnership betweenNews Corporation andLiberty Media. It was the first regional sports network branded as Fox Sports after the creation ofFox Sports Net from what had been thePrime Network group of RSNs. Fox Sports Arizona was the cable television home of thePhoenix Coyotes of theNational Hockey League when they began play that October and of theArizona Diamondbacks ofMajor League Baseball when that team began play in 1998. In addition, Fox Sports Arizona carried college sports as well as Arizona high school sports. ThePhoenix Suns of theNational Basketball Association moved their cable games to the network in 2003 after 22 years of association withCox Communications and its predecessors and their RSN, the Arizona Sports and Programming Network (later renamed Cox Sports, Cox 9, Cox 7, andYurView Arizona).
On March 31, 2021, the network was rebranded Bally Sports Arizona after the network was purchased byDiamond Sports Group, a joint venture between theSinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios. Diamond filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2023. The Arizona RSN lost money for Bally, which opted to drop all three professional teams. Under new Suns andPhoenix Mercury team ownerMat Ishbia, both the Suns and Mercury signed a deal to move their games to broadcast stations owned byGray Television on April 20, 2023.[1] While this deal was stayed by a bankruptcy judge for the Suns (the Mercury were unaffected by the judge's ruling[2]), Bally ultimately cut ties with the Suns after failing to match Gray's offer on July 14.[3] On July 18, Major League Baseball took over production and distribution of telecasts for the Diamondbacks after Diamond missed a second payment for the Diamondbacks during the 2023 season.[4] On October 4, Bally Sports cut ties with the Coyotes;[5] the team signed a deal withScripps Sports a day later, ahead of the start of the2023–24 season.[6]
Bally Sports Arizona signed off for the final time on October 21, 2023.
On March 21, 1996, two teams new to the market, the expansionArizona Diamondbacks ofMajor League Baseball and the relocatingoriginal Winnipeg Jets of theNational Hockey League (which became the Phoenix, laterArizona Coyotes), announced ten-year deals with Fox/Liberty Sports to telecast 60 baseball games and 40 hockey games a season.[7] The partnership betweenNews Corporation andLiberty Media had been formed several months earlier.[8] Liberty owned thePrime Sports group ofregional sports networks, whose programming was seen in Arizona on theCox Communications–ownedArizona Sports Programming Network (ASPN).[9] The name for the new network was to have been Prime Sports Arizona, but following the announcement to rebrand Liberty'sPrime Sports Networks and formFox Sports Net, the name was changed to Fox Sports Arizona (FSAZ).[10][11]
Fox Sports Arizona was launched on September 7, 1996, with the first game on the network beingArizona State University's 45–42 win over itsPac-10 rival,Washington.[12][13] The first Coyotes game was broadcast on October 18; the Diamondbacks would join the network a year and a half later for their inaugural 1998 season.[12] The network also televised high school football and basketball state championships.[13] The other major team in the market, thePhoenix Suns of theNational Basketball Association, had been telecast by ASPN since 1981; the team remained with ASPN and its successors, Cox Sports and Cox 9, until 2003, when Fox Sports Arizona acquired rights.[14][15]
A secondary feed, branded as FSN Arizona Plus, was first used in 2007 to manage conflicts between a Suns playoff game and a Diamondbacks game.[16] It returned in 2008 for the same purpose.[17] By 2011, it was a full-time channel on most cable providers.[18] In 2021 and 2022, a third feed, known as Bally Sports Arizona Extra, was necessary due to overlapping NBA, NHL, and MLB games.[19][20]
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies,The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Arizona. However, on June 27, 2018, theJustice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership ofESPN. On May 3, 2019,Sinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios (through their joint venture,Diamond Sports Group) bought theFox Sports Networks fromThe Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019.[21] On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the start of the2021 Major League Baseball season, Fox Sports Arizona was rebranded as Bally Sports Arizona, as part of a branding agreement with commercial casino operatorBally's Corporation.[22][23]
On February 15, 2023, Diamond Sports Group, the owner of Bally Sports Arizona, failed to make a $140 million interest payment, instead opting for a 30-day grace period to make the payment.[24] On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[25]
In the months that followed, Diamond Sports lost all of its Arizona-market professional sports rights. During its bankruptcy, Diamond missed a payment to the Diamondbacks.[26] On April 5, 2023, the Diamondbacks filed an emergency motion asking the bankruptcy judge to order Diamond to pay the Diamondbacks fully or give its media rights back toMajor League Baseball. Diamond argued that, because ofcord-cutting, the contract rate for the media rights of the teams was too high. A hearing on the matter was set for May 31, 2023.[27] As an interim, on April 19, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond Sports to pay 50% of what the Diamondbacks were owed.[28] On June 1, after a two-day long hearing, the bankruptcy judge ordered Diamond to pay the Diamondbacks fully within five days.[29] On June 22, 2023, Diamond Sports announced its intention to reject Bally Sports Arizona's contract with the Diamondbacks on June 30, 2023.[30] On July 18, Diamond was granted a motion to decline its contract with the team. Major League Baseball subsequently took over production and distribution of Diamondbacks telecasts (not unlike its takeover of a fellow Bally Sports property, theSan Diego Padres, in May).[31] For the rest of the Diamondbacks season, MLB-produced telecasts were offered by local cable providers, including by Cox on itsYurView Arizona channels in thePhoenix and Tucson regions.[32]
Under new ownerMat Ishbia, the Phoenix Suns andPhoenix Mercury of theWNBA had telegraphed an interest in moving on from Bally Sports Arizona. In an April 2023 interview with thePhoenix Business Journal, team CEOJosh Bartelstein cited a "goal of wide distribution" for the teams in the face of cord cutting affecting the availability of RSNs.[33] On April 28, the Suns and Mercury announced aGray Television to put its regional games on broadcast television, under a five-year agreement for the Suns and a two-year agreement for thePhoenix Mercury, replacing Bally Sports Arizona for their upcoming seasons.[34] Diamond subsequently accused the team of breaching its contract and bankruptcy law.[34] On May 10, 2023, the bankruptcy judge voided the Suns contract with Gray, ruling that the Suns violated Bally Sports Arizona's contractual right of first refusal. He ordered the parties into arbitration. The Phoenix Mercury portion of the deal was not affected by the ruling, allowing the team to move its games to Gray-ownedKTVK andArizona's Family Sports for the2023 season.[2] On July 14, the Suns announced that the Gray deal would go ahead, as Diamond Sports Group declined to match the contract.[35]
Without the Diamondbacks and Suns, Bally Sports only had rights to the Coyotes. On October 4, Diamond Sports announced its intention to reject Bally Sports Arizona's contract with the hockey team, with the Coyotes signing a new contract withScripps Sports the next day.[36] Under theScripps Sports umbrella, the Coyotes would air regular season games throughout both the states of Arizona andUtah during the2023–24 season. This move meant that Bally Sports Arizona no longer held the broadcast rights to any professional sports teams in the state of Arizona.[37]
On October 13, after losing the rights to Suns, Diamondbacks and Coyotes, Bally Sports Arizona posted on social media that it no longer held the rights to any local professional teams and would begin to wind down with the natural expiration of its carriage agreements.[38][39] Its closure left thePhoenix metropolitan area, the 11th-largest media market in the country, without a traditional regional sports network.[40]
In addition to the Coyotes (1996–2023), Diamondbacks (1998–2023), and Suns (2003–2023), Fox Sports/Bally Sports Arizona held other local sports rights in its history:
InSouthern Arizona, includingTucson, Bally Sports Arizona Extra airedSan Diego Padres games and related programming produced by itsBally Sports San Diego to select cable providers in that region until MLB took over that team's broadcast rights.[50]
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
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