SAN DIEGO — The era of San Diego Padres games broadcasted on Bally Sports is officially over.
Tuesday's game against the Miami Marlins marked the final broadcast of Padres games on the sports network after its parent company, Diamond Sports Group, missed payments last week, losing game broadcast rights.
The Padres and Major League Baseball will now partner for a direct-to-consumer streaming option that will also eliminate local game blackouts.
What you should know
- The new broadcast partnership starts Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. Pacific when the Padres face the Miami Marlins. Fans will have the option to watch games on television or stream digitally.
- During the transition, MLB will air games for free through June 4 on the MLB website, Padres website and on MLB mobile apps.
- Don Orsillo, Mark Grand and Bob Scanlan will continue in their roles as the Padres primary television broadcasters.
- Padres fans can purchase a direct-to-consumer MLB.TV subscription for $19.99 per month or $74.99 for the rest of the season by registering at MLB.TV
Beginning on May 31, Padres fans in San Diego can watch games on television on the following channels:
- DIRECTV: Now channel 694-3
- COX: Now YurView Channel 4
- AT&T U-verse: Now Channel 781
- Spectrum: Now Channel 305
- Fubo
"Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute Padres games to fans throughout Padres territory,” said Noah Garden, MLB Chief Revenue Officer. “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with the Club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Padres games by more than 2 million homes.”
In a statement to CBS 8, Padres CEO, Erik Greupner said,
"We have been preparing for this groundbreaking moment. The Padres are excited to be the first team to partner with Major League Baseball to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option through MLB.TV without blackouts while preserving our in-market distribution through traditional cable and satellite television providers.
Our fans will now have unprecedented access to Padres games through both digital and traditional platforms throughout San Diego and beyond.”
Diamond Sports Group said it decided not to provide additional funding that would enable it to make the broadcast rights payments.
A spokesperson for Diamond Sports Group provided a statement to CBS 8 that read in part,
"While DSG has significant liquidity and have been making rights payments to teams, the economics of the Padres’ contract were not aligned with market realities.
MLB has forced our hand by its continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights. We are continuing to broadcast games for teams under our contracts.”
According to MLB, the new partnership expands the reach of Padres games from approximately 1.130 million homes to approximately 3.264 million homes.
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