History
On March 21, 1996, two teams new to the market, the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball and the relocating original Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (which became the Phoenix, later Arizona Coyotes), announced ten-year deals with Fox/Liberty Sports to telecast 60 baseball games and 40 hockey games a season.[7] The partnership between News Corporation and Liberty Media had been formed several months earlier.[8] Liberty owned the Prime Sports group of regional sports networks, whose programming was seen in Arizona on the Cox Communications–owned Arizona 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's Prime Sports Networks and form Fox 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 being Arizona State University's 45–42 win over its Pac-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, the Phoenix Suns of the National 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 from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Arizona. However, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of ESPN. On May 3, 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (through their joint venture, Diamond Sports Group) bought the Fox Sports Networks from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019.[21] On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the start of the 2021 Major League Baseball season, Fox Sports Arizona was rebranded as Bally Sports Arizona, as part of a branding agreement with commercial casino operator Bally's Corporation.[22][23]
Bankruptcy and shutdown
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 for Chapter 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 to Major League Baseball. Diamond argued that, because of cord-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]
