After bolting regional sports network Bally Sports over the spring, the NBA's Phoenix Suns are about to see their new local TV home, KTVK Arizona's Family, pulled off YouTube TV amid a dispute between the vMVPD and station owner Gray Television. 

"As of November 18th, 2023, YouTube TV will no longer carry Arizona’s Family 3TV. This means that YouTube TV subscribers will lose access to live sports, our market-leading local news, and your favorite programs like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune," reads warnings sent to KTVK viewers that started late last week. 

"We are disappointed that YouTube TV has come to this decision, as we have done everything in our power to reach a market-based agreement," the station warning added. The good news is that you have options. Arizona’s Family is available on providers like Cox, Fubo, DirecTV, and Dish, as well as free over-the-air with an antenna." (The Gray warning did not mention the Suns' new DTC streaming channel, Suns Live.)

The dispute between Gray and the virtual MVPD involves only Gray-owned independent stations. For example, Gray's KPHO-TV (aka "Arizona’s Family CBS 5") will remain on YouTube TV, with Paramount Global negotiating carriage of the CBS affiliate directly with the vMVPD. 

As an independent operating under existing retrans rules that differ or virtual MVPDs vs. linear ones, KTVK has very little leverage in any kind of fee negotiation with YouTube TV. 

In April, mortgage mogul Mat Ishbia announced that his pro hoops teams, the Suns and the WBNA's Phoenix Mercury, would not renew their deals with Bally Sports and instead enter deals to air regular season games on Gray's KTVK -- agreements that ostensibly expanded the teams' reach to the entire Arizona region. 

YouTube TV added an industry-leading 600,000 subscribers in the third quarter, according to an estimate released by Leichtman Research Group on Tuesday. The virtual service is closing in on Dish satellite TV to become the fourth largest pay TV service in the U.S., with between 6.5 million - 7.3 million subscribers.  

After bolting their Bally Sports RSN contract and heading into a broadcast deal with Gray Television, the NBA's Phoenix Suns on Wednesday rolled out the direct-to-consumer streaming platform that will augment their local TV coverage.

Built by Kiswe, the same tech vendor behind DTC platforms recently launched by the Utah Jazz and NHL's Vegas Golden Knights, Suns Live will run $14.99 a month or $109.99 for the full regular season. 

Also Read: Kiswe Mobile’s Mike Schabel: Why the NBA’s Phoenix Suns Are Still Going to Get Their ‘Buckets’ on Free Over-the-Air Broadcast TV

Both tiers get users access to live preseason games (there are five this season) and regular season contests (70 total), game replays, and studio shows. The full-season package tacks on a Suns T-shirt. Unlike the Jazz, the Suns don't appear to be offering a single-game option for DTC customers. 

Live game coverage on Suns Live starts Sunday, when the Suns visit the Detroit Pistons for the first preseason contest of the 2023-24 campaign. 

Fresh off their trade for Bradley Beal, the Suns need the local TV revenue, having the third-highest payroll in the league at $188.5 million. 

One of the more surprising developments in the big Bally Sports regional sports networks Chapter 11 meltdown this past spring has been the migration of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and their local TV rights to the place from which they started, free over-the-air broadcast TV. 

In late April, the Suns and their siblings, the WBNA's Phoenix Mercury -- both operating under new ownership, billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia -- announced they would not renew their distribution deal with Bally's operator, the bankrupt Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports Group. 

Also read: NBA's Phoenix Suns Clear to Make Move to Gray TV Broadcast Distribution After Bally Sports RSN Operator Diamond Drops Objection

Instead, the teams would embark on an OTA deal with broadcaster Gray Television, putting all their games on KTVK Phoenix and the newly launched KPHE Phoenix. 

Digital video technology company Kiswe Mobile, meanwhile, would build a direct-to-consumer app-based platform for the teams, distributing their games across connected TV and mobile devices. 

Speaking to Next TV on the phone last week, Mike Schabel, chief strategy officer for Kiswe Mobile, said the company remains in "build mode" on the new DTC service, still working out basic elements like price point, as well as many of the technology decisions that go into the app itself. 

Indeed, we had a lot of detailed questions that Schabel just couldn't answer -- either because he wasn't allowed yet to discuss these specific issues ... or, at this point, he just simply doesn't know. (Schabel and his team have only until late October, when the Suns start their regular season, to figure this all out.)

But Schabel, a former Bell Labs worker bee (Ireland chapter) who earned a Ph.D in chemical engineering down the road from the Suns at the University of Arizona in Tucson, couldn't help but share his enthusiasm for a deal he thinks could lead to fundamental changes in local sports broadcasting.

For one, he believes the Suns won't leave any monetization points on the floor under their new TV configuration, which has them reaching more than three times as many households, 2.8 million, compared to the 800,000 tapped into by their previous Bally Sports Arizona arrangement.

"Those local ad spots are going to be highly valuable," Schabel said. "Local teams are really good at selling local ads."

Throw in subscription revenue from Kiswe, as well as innovations in things like e-commerce for team merchandise, along with intangible elements like improved arena attendance due to increased overall fan engagement.

"When you start to add all of that up, you're shifting the buckets of economics, but you're not shifting the overall money dramatically," Schabel explained.

Beyond monetization factors, Schabel believes Kiswe's vision for app-based monetization will provide the teams with a means of reaching younger consumers who simply aren't in the habit of leaning back and watching games on pay. 

"We’re looking at the folks who are fundamental cord cutters and cord nevers," explained Schabel, who doesn't just limit that cohort to just younger sports fans. 

The Suns Kiswe app, he said, "will have social interaction embedded into the experience."

Fans will be able to conduct a managed chat with friends and other fans who they haven't even physically met on their devices through the app as games unfold, contributing elements like selfie reaction videos.

"The fans can be part of the experience, showing off their merch, showing off their enthusiasm," he added. "They're part of the show."

The Suns and the Mercury aren't the only pro team to make this retrograde local TV journey recently. 

In early May, the NHL Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights bolted Warner Bros. Discovery's sunsetting AT&T SportsNet RSN system and entered a new OTA broadcast deal with Scripps Sports. 

Similarly, the NBA's Utah Jazz also bolted the folding AT&T SportsNet to pursue a free OTA broadcast deal with the broadcasting company whose (not so) strategic decision-making started the whole RSN meltdown in the first place, Sinclair. 

Sinclair's bankrupt Diamond Sports Group has dropped a court objection to a distribution agreement reached in April between broadcaster Gray Television and the Phoenix Suns, as well as the NBA franchise's WBNA sibling, the Phoenix Mercury. 

“I am excited to be able to deliver to our Suns and Mercury fans this industry-shifting partnership with Gray Television," the teams' owner, Mat Ishbia, said in a statement provided to Sports Business Journal. "This deal gives more than 2.8 million homes across Arizona access to Suns and Mercury games for free.” 

The Suns and Mercury had expiring TV rights deals with Diamond to show their games in their local area on regional sports network Bally Sports Arizona. The teams signed a deal with Gray in late April to move their games back to free over-the-air broadcast TV.

Diamond was able to convince the court overseeing its bankruptcy to block the deal, temporarily, based on a clause in its contract with the teams giving it the right to match or exceed any outside offer for renewal. 

According to the Sports Business Journal, it was ultimately concluded that in a declining pay TV market, Bally Sports Arizona's reach couldn't match the 2.8 million homes the Gray TV deal promises to deliver. 

Pundits believe the Suns/Mercury deal could be a trend-setter, with the NBA's Utah Jazz also leaving the RSN business to return to broadcast TV. 

Diamond's capitulation, meanwhile, could also be an indicator that the subsidiary will also cut loose Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks from the team's Bally Sports Arizona contract. (Wouldn't pay TV operators demand to renegotiate their carriage deals after a major tenant like the Suns leaves the channel?)

Diamond is using the leverage provided by Chapter 11 to negotiate the Diamondbacks down from their $75-million-a-season licensing rate, plus give up their DTC streaming rights at no additional cost.

As reported earlier this week by the New York Post, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is pushing back on that deal.

And as Next TV reported late Thursday evening, the league is working with pay TV operators, including DirecTV, to set up a new channel for the Diamondbacks. For its part, DirecTV petitioned the Houston bankruptcy court, trying to ensure that if it launches a new Diamondbacks channel, it won't also be on the hook to pay licensing fees on a bereft Bally Sports Arizona. 

We'll know soon if Diamond and the Diamondbacks can agree -- they're set to report their negotiating status to Judge Chris Lopez in Houston on Monday. 

Should the Suns, Mercury and Diamondbacks all flee Bally Sports Arizona, the only remaining tenant would be the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes. And entire RSN floated to a desert community on pro hockey. Let's see how that skates. 

As they've played to a 2-3 deficit in their best-of-seven Western Conference Semifinals series with the Denver Nuggets, the NBA's Phoenix Suns have struggled with the dominant rim protection of Denver's perennial league MVP, Nikola Jokic (aka “The Joker”).

Turns out U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez is a pretty effective shot blocker, too.

The Texas judge, who is overseeing the bankruptcy restructuring of Bally Sports’ parent subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, has ordered a halt to the Suns' plan to bolt their expiring deal with Bally Sports Arizona and enter a new local TV rights agreement with broadcaster Gray Television. 

The judge cited a clause in the Suns’ deal — as well as WNBA franchise the Phoenix Mercury — that prevents the teams from leaving Bally Sports without first giving the regional sports network a chance to enter a more competitive licensing bid. 

Also Read: Diamond Sports Sues the Phoenix Suns After NBA Team Bolts Bally Sports for Gray TV Local Broadcast Deal

According to sources familiar with the teams’ negotiations, the Suns were being paid around $25 million a season in their previous deal with Diamond. Initially at least, the over-the-air broadcast deal with Gray TV, as well as a direct-to-consumer streaming side deal with Kiswe Mobile, paid the team significantly less money. 

The Suns announced their deal two weeks ago and were sued by Diamond for breach of contract shortly after that announcement. 

Also Read: Phoenix Suns Could Have Big ATSC 3.0 Distribution Plans, and Other Teams, Including the Utah Jazz, Might Soon Follow

Attorneys for the team argued that the Gray TV deal didn't preclude the Suns from renewing their RSN deal with Bally Sports. 

However, citing a “media blitz” from the pro hoops team that paid nary a mention of Bally Sports Arizona, the judge didn't buy that. 

“The Suns are saying one thing outside the court and another thing inside it,” Lopez said.

Bankrupt Diamond Sports Group has sued the NBA's Phoenix Suns, as well as the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, accusing the pro basketball franchises of breaching their local TV contracts by agreeing to five-year local TV partnership to show their games with Gray Television and Kiswe Mobile. 

“The Suns’ failure to comply with their contractual duties, and Diamond Arizona’s potential loss of approximately 70 games of NBA content provided by the Suns each season, puts Diamond Arizona’s business at significant peril, thereby directly threatening its ability to reorganize,” Diamond wrote in the emergency motion for a stay. 

Also read: Diamond Coughs Up Bally Sports Rights Payments to the Reds, Keeps Team From Launching Its Own RSN

“The Suns’ deliberate disregard of its contractual duties to Diamond Arizona is specifically the type of action the automatic stay is meant to protect against," Diamond's complaint added. 

Diamond is asking the Texas bankruptcy court overseeing its restructuring to void the Suns and Mercury's deals with Gray and Kiswe, as well as award it damages. 

The suit was first reported by The Athletic. 

Team reps have yet to comment. But responding to Diamond's public complaints last week last week, Suns and Mercury CEO  Josh Bartelstein said in a statement, “Diamond’s position is totally inaccurate. We are moving forward with this deal and could not be more excited about what it means for our fans and our future.”

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Diamond is the independent subsidiary set up by Sinclair Broadcast Group to manage 19 Bally Sports branded regional sports networks. Diamond's TV deal with the Suns and Mercury expires this year, and it claims it has, under contract, the right to match any outside local TV deal the teams make. 

Late last week, the teams announced a deal to show 70 Suns games across Gray TV local broadcast stations across Arizona, as well as stream their games direct-to-consumer via Kiswe Mobile. 

Also read: Phoenix Suns Could Have Big ATSC 3.0 Distribution Plans, and Other Teams, Including the Utah Jazz, Might Soon Follow

Diamond contends those five-year deals fail to generate the revenue it is offering the Suns and Mercury for a renewal on RSN Bally Sports Arizona. 

Diamond is currently try to trade equity in Diamond to its creditors in exchange for around $8 billion of debt relief. 

In December, media technologist Todd Achilles shuttered his innovative ATSC 3.0 startup, Evoca TV, unable to secure tens of millions of dollars in capital needed to keep his venture going. 

But this sad culmination belied how close Achilles and Evoca actually came last year to transforming the currently challenged regional sports network model. 

According to an executive close to Evoca's dealings at the time, the startup -- which counted Gray Television among its backers -- had the NBA's Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans, and even league Commissioner Adam Silver, seriously considering what it pitched as the "Denver Example." 

It was in Denver where Boise, Idaho-based Evoca was bundling AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, home of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies, along with Altitude Sports, home of the NBA's Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche, delivering the package to consumers, primarily via ATSC 3.0, for $25 a month. 

Add Next TV to your Twitter feed today! Follow @ThisIsNextTV to keep up to date on the latest business and technology news of the video entertainment industry

As a further enticement, local-area sports fans could receive all of their local broadcast channels via the proprietary Scout receiver Evoca provided to customers. Evoca didn't have to pay retrans on those channels because they were being delivered free and over the air ... via ATSC 3.0. 

Sports fans could follow their favorite team, and carve out a respectable skinny bundle with a low-cost complimentary vMVPD like Sling TV, without paying for the Full Pay-TV Monty. And regional sports networks costs weren't being crammed down the throats of TV lovers who don't watch sports. 

And with DTC streaming unable as yet to generate RSN-level revenue, teams and leagues were able to keep the golden goose intact. 

"The beauty of this model is that it kept the current system going ... It relieved all the pressure points," the insider told Next TV. 

Ultimately, Evoca wasn't able to sway what were described by the insider as often obtuse gatekeepers at Northeastern investment banks into providing around $40 million in funding -- a level that, perhaps, was admittedly "too high." 

Evoca also couldn't convince Sinclair's Diamond Sports Group, operator of Bally Sports Arizona, the exclusive RSN home of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and WBNA's Phoenix Mercury, to sign onto the Denver Example.

And it couldn't get its station group backers -- which included the E.W. Scripps Company, in addition to Gray TV -- to cough up more coin, either. 

In retrospect, the station groups "probably figured they could do [Evoca's plan] on their own," the insider said. 

Jump Forward to This Morning

On Friday morning, Gray TV, the Suns and the Mercury generated bombshell headlines, announcing the teams' exit from Sinclair/Diamond's bankrupt Bally Sports regional sports networks umbrella, entering a local broadcast TV deal with Gray TV stations.

If the Suns and Mercury are successful in extricating themselves from their contractual ties with Bally parent Diamond Sports Group -- and that's a big if, depending on what a Texas bankruptcy judge decides in the next few weeks -- the teams will broadcast the majority of their games to 2.8 million viewers across three local stations covering the Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma markets.

Games will also be streamed direct-to-consumer via a platform developed by Kiswe.

Also read -- Diamond Does It: Files for Bankruptcy Looking to Shed $8 Billion in Bally Sports Debt

Updated: Next TV added details needed to clarify the Phoenix Suns TV rights revenue. 

The Suns currently make around $24 million a season on an expiring local TV rights deal with Bally Sports Arizona. The team, which has more than $290 million committed to guard Devin Booker alone in a multiyear deal, is reportedly looking to step up to as much as $50 million a season in its next rights deal. 

A source familiar with the Suns' TV deal told Next TV, well, what's probably obvious to anyone familiar with sports media -- that licensing local broadcast rights and making almost every game ubiquitously available free-to-consumer wouldn't generate an ad revenue split anything close to $50 million. 

"They're not going to just put this out over broadcast TV and lose $50 million a year," the source said.

So we can definitely look for Gray TV, the Suns and the Mercury to further evolve their TV distribution model.

"The potential model has components to it including tiered non-exclusive pay TV distribution, as well as broadcast enabled pay walls via ATSC 3.0. Will those appear all at once?  That I don’t know. But I do know it can keep rights fees within current parameters," tweeted sports media consultant Patrick Crakes Friday morning. 

The ATSC 3.0 possibility, which would allow the teams to control access and monetization, is interesting here. 

Notably, in addition to Gray TV, a number of folks associated with the Evoca play also have their fingerprints on the Suns/Mercury deal, including another sports media consultant, Lee H. Berke, who is even quoted in this morning's Gray TV press release. 

Meanwhile, William Morris Endeavor super-agent Karen Brodkin, who represents the Jazz, Pelicans ... and Suns, among other pro sports teams, was also said to have had a foundational role in Evoca's team dealings. 

Also notable: The Gray TV press release says the deal will "make games available" to 2.8 million Arizona households. Might this imply that not all of that viewing will be free? Might ATSC 3.0 be used to tier levels of access, as well as viewing features, like 4K?

Jazzed About Self-Distribution

The ongoing Bally Sports bankruptcy restructuring has further destabilized a sports media ecosystem already reeling from a rapid acceleration in pay TV cord-cutting. 

On Thursday, for instance, Comcast, the biggest pay TV operator in America, reported its biggest ever quarterly Xfinity TV losses, bleeding out 614,000 more video souls in Q1. 

But there are other inflection points, notably Warner Bros. Discovery's announced intention to exit the RSN business. 

The NBA's Jazz are currently planning to broadcast their games next season without WBD's AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. 

According to a mid-March report in The Athletic, the Jazz -- which control all of their own TV production -- are looking for a "hybrid approach" to TV distribution, one that marries "broadcast on TV and a direct-to-consumer option."

Under a scenario described to The Athletic by Jazz communications chief Caroline Klein, a certain number of games would be available free over the airwaves, as to not alienate the fanbase, as the exclusive gates of regional channels have over the years. But enough games would be paywalled as to keep revenue flat -- or at least around flat -- with the incumbent but failing RSN model. 

Notably, before the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers agreed with Diamond last year to re-up with Bally Sports, the team carved out a deal with Nexstar Media Group to broadcast 15 games for free on KTLA. 

As for the Suns and the Jazz, emerging TV distribution goals might not just be about keeping fans happy. These teams might want to avoid a future in which their huge team payrolls can be undermined by companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group, which embarked on several expensive stock buyback gambits after it paid $9.6 billion to acquire the Fox Sports RSNs four years ago. 

These buybacks undermined the ability of Sinclair and Diamond to manage the billions of dollars in Bally Sports debt, once erosion to the pay TV ecosystem whittled margins on the Bally Sports channels from around 50% in 2019 to less than 20% today.

“The goal is to not have to rely on these big companies,” said an unnamed team president to The Athletic. “You get a big rights fee and that’s great but we’ve watched those companies nose dive over the last few years." 

Diamond Sports Group, which runs the Bally Sports regional sports networks, said that the agreement the NBA’s Phoenix Suns announced today to have games broadcast on TV stations owned by Gray Television breaches its contract with the team and violates bankruptcy law.

A subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Diamond filed for bankruptcy protection in March. Regional sports networks are under pressure because cord cutting is eroding subscriber revenue and reducing the number of eyeballs watching games via pay TV. 

In bankruptcy court, Major League Baseball has been arguing that its teams should get their TV rights back from Diamond unless the RSN company pays the rights fees previously agreed to. The Bally RSNs have continued to televise baseball games while its case works its way through bankruptcy court.

The NBA’s regular season is over, but the WNBA is playing and the Suns’ deal with Gray, under which games will air on stations KTVK and KPHE, includes the co-owned WNBA Phoenix Mercury.

“The Phoenix Suns breached our contract and violated bankruptcy law, and Diamond Sports Group will pursue all remedies against any parties that attempt to exercise control over our property interests while we reorganize,” Diamond Sports said in a statement. “This is an improper effort by the Suns to change their broadcasting partner without permitting Diamond to exercise our contractual rights.”

Suns and Phoenix Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein responded to Diamond's assertion in a statement that said “Diamond’s position is totally inaccurate. We are moving forward with this deal and could not be more excited about what it means for our fans and our future.”

Gray Television had no comment on Diamond’s claims.

The weekend’s list of televised live sports events begins in the octagon Saturday night as ESPN Plus offers via pay-per-view the UFC 264 event pitting Conor McGregor against Dustin Poirier in the third match between the two mixed martial arts fighters. The second fight between the two won by Poirier this past January drew a reported 1.2 million pay-per-view buys. 

In other sports, ABC on Sunday will air game three of the NBA Finals, as the Phoenix Suns travel to Milwaukee to play the Bucks, up 2-0 in the series. 

ESPN on Saturday morning will televise the women's final of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, followed by the men’s final on Sunday morning.

From the links, NBC will air final round weekend coverage of the American Century Championship tournament, while CBS airs the PGA John Deere Classic on Saturday and Sunday. 

On the soccer field, ESPN on Sunday will air the finals of the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament between Italy and England, while FS1 will air the CONCACAF Gold Cup match between Canada and Martinique. 

ESPN on Sunday will air the MLB Draft live as baseball heads into the All-Star break next week. 

ABC will televise the NBA Finals beginning Tuesday, July 6 as the Milwaukee Bucks tip off against the Phoenix Suns.

Game one of the series, also available on the ESPN App, ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes, marks ABC’s 19th consecutive season televising the league’s championship round. Announcers Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson will call all the action for ABC.

Milwaukee, who will start the series without its injured All-Star player Giannis Antetokounmpo, is making its first NBA Finals appearance since 1974, when Kareem-Abdul Jabbar led the team to the championship round. Phoenix, led by veteran point guard Chris Paul, last appeared in the finals in 1993. 

Also Read: Q&A: NBA Legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar Champions U.S. Social Justice Movements in History Doc

Game two of the series will take place Thursday (July 8), followed by game three on Sunday (July 11) and game four (July 14). If necessary, ABC will air game five on July 17, game six on July 20 and game seven on July 22. 

Also Read: ESPN Finishes NBA Playoffs on High Note

You know it’s basketball season when a man in a gorilla suit starts appearing in promos for a sports network’s senior studio show.

Viewers to ESPN Deportes and its ESPN México sibling are being treated to two new “This is SportsCenter” spots featuring anchors Jorge Eduardo Sánchez, Ricardo Puig and Jorge Mercader … and “Go,” the iconic gorilla-suited mascot of the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns.

The first spot, “Jungle,” opens with Sánchez explaining that ESPN offers the opportunity for its employees to decorate their own office space and give it a personal touch. The spot then cuts to Puig, who asks his colleague, “Go,” if he’d like to go to lunch, revealing his “jungle” cubicle while he jumps over the wall to head to lunch.

The second spot, “Go Bananas,” features Mercader searching for something to eat in the refrigerator and finally deciding on a banana. When he closes the fridge, he is surprised to find “Go” behind the door. A stare-down ensues, and Mercader is forced to relinquish his snack to the hungry gorilla.

Both commercials were created by ESPN International’s marketing team in Mexico and are an extension of the “This is SportsCenter” effort seen across ESPN’s English-language networks in the U.S.

The NBA-themed effort comes as ESPN Deportes bulks up its roster of soccer commentators by hiring Jorge Pérez-Navarro for “a variety of soccer events” on both ESPN Deportes and ESPN Deportes Radio, making regular appearances on the sports chat show Jorge Ramos y Su Banda.

Pérez-Navarro was formerly with Telemundo’s sports department and, prior to that, spent more than a decade as co-host for Univision’s sports