Want to watch the D-backs on TV? Very few options available

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Thursday is the home opener for the Arizona Diamondbacks and if you want to watch the game on television, you should know it’s not very easy. Right now, relatively few TV providers carry the channel that has the games — but that could be changing.

The D-backs games are only on Bally Sports. That’s a problem for a lot of fans, because Bally is on Cox Cable, DirecTV and Fubo. That’s it. That means fans that use services like Dish, YouTubeTV or Hulu can’t see the games.

The same is true for the Suns, Mercury and Coyotes, but their games are all on Bally’s streaming service that costs $20 a month. There is no streaming-only option for the D-Backs.

But here’s where things get even more complicated. Diamond Sports, the parent company of Bally, filed for bankruptcy protection last month. They’ve already missed a payment to the Diamondbacks. Bally is still broadcasting the games while going through bankruptcy process, but this means another company could get the right to show the games when that case is resolved.

So here’s the bottom line. Right now, the cheapest option to see the games on TV is on Fubo, and that’s $75 a month. The games could leave Bally and move to another station soon, but there’s no guarantee. For now you may just want to listen to the radio, or pull up a seat at a sports bar.

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