Will Diamondbacks games air on cable, satellite channels this season?

PHOENIX — Major League Baseball will produce Diamondbacks television broadcasts this season as it did following the Bally Sports Arizona fallout last summer, but fans will still be able to watch their team on cable and satellite.

The channels are to be determined even with Opening Day next Thursday at Chase Field.

“It’s gonna be the same as last year when we moved over to MLB. They had focused on the MLB streaming, which was at DBACKS.TV and that is a way to do it at, what we think, is a very affordable cost for the package,” team president and CEO Derrick Hall said on Thursday during the annual “What’s New at Chase Field” event.

“However, we’re still gonna have cable and satellite locations. We just don’t know what those channels are yet because MLB is still negotiating with the distributors.”

Hall said negotiations could last up to Opening Day when the D-backs host the Colorado Rockies, but once channels are finalized, the club will announce them to fans.

The league took over the broadcasts last July, and games aired on Yurview (Channel 4 in Phoenix, Channel 7 in Tucson) for Cox subscribers and Channel 686-3 for DIRECTV users.

DBACKS.TV is offered for $99.99 for the full season or $19.99 per month.

Over-the-air options were considered this offseason, Hall said, as the Diamondbacks went into spring training without a TV deal done.

“We ended up staying with MLB just because the shorter runway, we liked the fact that last year they were there to pick up for a seamless transition, the quality of the of the production is really strong and the feedback we got from fans was how favorable it was,” Hall said.

“But we looked heavily into over-the-air. We looked at Gray TV, we looked at Scripps and came close, and it’s not something that we’re ruling out for the future.”

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