Bally Sports Arizona (BSAZ) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

and

Entertainment Studios Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and ...

, and operates as an affiliate of

Bally Sports The Bally Sports Regional Networks are a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. The naming rights to the network ...

. The channel broadcasts professional, collegiate and high school sports events, with a primary focus on

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

area teams. It is available on most

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

providers throughout

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

; Bally Sports Arizona is also available nationwide on

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

provider DirecTV.

Overview

On March 21, 1996, two new expansion teams, the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and an unnamed

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

franchise from Phoenix (to become known as the Arizona Coyotes) announced 10 year deals with Fox/ Liberty Sports. The partnership between

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

and Liberty Media had been formed several months earlier. The name for the new network was would have been Prime Sports Arizona, but following the announcement to rebrand Liberty's Prime Sports Networks and form

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

, the name was changed to Fox Sports Arizona (FSAZ). The network would be the first to use the new Fox Sports name. 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

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. The first Coyotes game was broadcast on October 18 and the Diamondbacks would finally join the network a year and a half later for their inaugural 1998 season. The Diamondbacks' first appearance would be a spring training game on February 27, 1998. The network also was the first to televise high school football and basketball state championships. In 2003, Fox Sports Arizona acquired rights to the Phoenix Suns which had been televised by Cox Communications on its

sports network Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming. The first spor ...

since 1981. On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies,

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

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 ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

. On May 3, 2019,

and

(through their joint venture, Diamond Holdings) bought Fox Sports Networks from

for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019. On November 17, 2020, Sinclair announced an agreement with casino operator

Bally's Corporation Bally's Corporation is a gaming, betting, and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. It owns and operates 15 casinos across ten states, a horse track in Colorado, and online sports betting operations in 14 st ...

to serve as a new naming rights partner for the FSN channels. Sinclair announced the new Bally Sports branding for the channels on January 27, 2021. On March 31, 2021, coinciding with the start of the

2021 Major League Baseball season The 2021 Major League Baseball season began on April 1, while the regular season ended on October 3. The postseason began on October 5. The World Series then began on October 26 and ended on November 2 with the Atlanta Braves defeating the Houston ...

, Fox Sports Arizona was rebranded as Bally Sports Arizona, resulting in 18 other Regional Sports Networks renamed Bally Sports in their respective regions. Bally Sports Arizona holds the regional cable television rights to three of the four major professional sports franchises in the Phoenix area: the

(

, with rights to most regular season games), the Phoenix Suns ( NBA, with rights to most regular season and early-round playoff games) and the Arizona Coyotes ( NHL, also with rights to most regular season and early-round playoff games), as well as the Phoenix Mercury ( WNBA). Also, they carry matches for the

Phoenix Rising FC Phoenix Rising Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 2014 as Arizona United Soccer Club, the team is a member of the USL Championship. History On March 13, 2014, Kyle Eng, owner of an advert ...

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

and games for the Tucson Roadrunners of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

(which are also streamed live on AHL.TV). In addition, Bally Sports Arizona also televises collegiate sports events involving the Arizona State Sun Devils, as well as a number of events from other teams of the Pac-12 Conference. Fox Sports Arizona formerly held the broadcast rights to select Arizona Wildcats sporting events from its inception until the spring of 2009; the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

shifted these event telecasts to the Arizona Wildcats Sports Network, beginning in August 2009, which were simulcast on FSA from 2010 until 2012, upon the launch of the Pac-12 Network and its dedicated "Pac-12 Arizona" subfeed network devoted to Arizona and Arizona State University sports.

Other services

Bally Sports Arizona Extra

Fox Sports Arizona launched an alternate feed, Fox Sports Arizona Plus, on April 25, 2008. Created as an overflow active only during instances in which a sporting event that Fox Sports Arizona holds rights to overlaps with another game being broadcast on the primary channel, it was established to resolve scheduling conflicts involving the 2008 NBA Playoffs Game 3 matchup between Phoenix Suns and a scheduled

game on that date. Now branded as Bally Sports Arizona Extra, it's available on many

providers. The Bally Sports Arizona Extra brand name was first in use on an additional overflow channel that was used for at least three Diamondbacks games. In the

Southern Arizona Southern Arizona is a region of the United States comprising the southernmost portion of the State of Arizona. It sometimes goes by the name Gadsden or Baja Arizona, which means "Lower Arizona" in Spanish. Geography Although Southern Arizona' ...

region only, including

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, Bally Sports Arizona Extra airs

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

games and related programming produced by its sister-network Bally Sports San Diego to select cable providers in that region. That region would thereby be blacked out from both Padres and Diamondbacks games on MLB.TV and MLB Extra Innings due to territory rights.

On-air staff

Steve Berthiaume Steve Berthiaume () is an American television sportscaster who serves as the play-by-play broadcast announcer for the Arizona Diamondbacks and is a former anchor on ESPN and a former sportscaster for SportsNet New York (SNY). He is married to ...

– Diamondbacks play-by-play announcer * Rich Waltz – Diamondbacks fill-in play-by-play announcer * Greg Schulte – Diamondbacks fill-in play-by-play announcer * Bob Brenly – Diamondbacks color commentator * Luis Gonzalez – Diamondbacks backup color commentator * Tom Candiotti – Diamondbacks backup color commentator * Jody Jackson – Diamondbacks and Coyotes studio host and Diamondbacks field reporter * Kate Longworth – Diamondbacks field reporter * Todd Walsh – Diamondbacks and Coyotes studio host * Joe Borowski – Diamondbacks studio analyst * Brandon Webb – Diamondbacks studio analyst * Kevin Ray – Suns play-by-play announcer * Eddie Johnson – Suns color commentator * Ann Meyers – Suns color commentator * Tom Leander – Suns backup play-by-play and studio host * Tom Chambers – Suns studio analyst * Matt McConnell – Coyotes play-by-play announcer * Tyson Nash – Coyotes color analyst * Paul Bissonnette – Coyotes studio analyst

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1 = {{Arizona Coyotes {{Phoenix Suns {{Arizona Diamondbacks {{Fox Sports Networks Bally Sports Fox Sports Networks Arizona Wildcats Television channels and stations established in 1996 1996 establishments in Arizona