Diamondbacks Negotiating for Over the Air Broadcasts in 2025

Arizona Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and President, CEO & General Partner Derrick Hall addressed the media at Chase Field on Monday morning, the first day of full-squad workouts.

Just a few days ago we reported that the Diamondbacks were offering the same package as last year for fans. That includes a DBacks.TV streaming package, as well as on Cox (Channel 34), Direct T.V., and other carriers.

In news that will surely be welcomed by fans, Hall said the Diamondbacks are in the midst of negotiations with unspecified partners to broadcast as many as 15 games over the air in 2025.

"We've talked to a number of our local stations about a small window that we've built in with MLB to have some games over the air. And, so we're working on those negotiations right now to see if we could take a package of games, almost like a game of the week, and have those on over-the-air partnership. we're speaking with several right now and we're excited about that opportunity."

Hall emphasized that this would not be a big money maker for the club, it's more about getting more people viewing the games. The advantages he's seeing are not the direct revenue.

"Well, I think just reach more eyeballs. We look at our games as really like three-hour [hopefully shorter] infomercials to get people to come out to the ballpark. So if we could get folks that maybe don't have cable or have already cut the cord, but perhaps they have over the air, it'll be an advantage to get a larger reach and those would be simulcast."

Whatever the number of over-the-air broadcasts end up being, those games will still be played on the normal distribution channels. Hall said the team has been negotiating with MLB for quite some time to be able to implement such a hybrid model. They tried last year but were unsuccessful.

"We were asking them to, but you know, distributors are paying MLB money to have exclusive means. And so we had to convince the carriers and the distributors that this would be a good thing for them too. And I think it is. I think. that the more eyeballs you get watching, they're going to want to watch that product as well," Hall said.

Hall said that last year the team had "nearly" 40,000 subscribers to MLB.TV last year. The package costs $100 so that revenue amounted to just $4,000,000 before whatever expenses they must pay to MLB to produce the games.

Hall believes that the over-the-air broadcasts will drive more subscriptions, perhaps as many as 55,000, as well as more users to Cox or Direct T.V. More importantly, it will help increase ticket sales.

Last year the Diamondbacks enjoyed a 19% increase in ticket sales, from 24,212 per game in 2023 to 28,912 in 2025. Hall said that 2025 ticket sales across all packages were up 20% and that full-season ticket sales were over 10,000, which is the highest mark in a decade.

Going forward, Hall projected attendance to exceed 30,000 per game in 2025. If they cross that threshold, it would be the first time since 2008.