Braves Fans May Have Lost Access to Watch The Team This Morning

The Atlanta Braves and their fans are innocent bystanders in a carriage dispute between Comcast and the parent company that runs the Bally Sports regional sports networks

Bally Sports broadcasts for eleven MLB teams and several NBA and NHL teams are unavailable for subscribers of Comcast / Mark Hoffman / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Atlanta Braves are trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners later this afternoon. 

But it might not be on your television. 

Late last night, we got word that a carriage dispute between Comcast and Diamond Sports Group, owner of the Bally Sports regional sports networks, means that Braves fans who use Comcast woke up this morning to news that they couldn’t watch Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast, broadcaster of almost all of the team’s games. 

(Important clarification: Diamond Sports Group the broadcaster is a separate entity from Diamond Baseball Holdings, the company that owns several minor league baseball teams across the country, including all four of Atlanta’s full-season affiliates.) 

A carriage dispute between Comcast and Diamond Sports Group is impacting several Major League Baseball teams including the #Braves. As a result, Comcast customers are currently unable to watch our games. Customers using other cable providers or streaming services are not…

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 1, 2024

As these things tend to go, both sides have put out statements blaming the other party for the lack of access. 

Comcast has an image on screen when a subscriber tries to tune into those impacted channels that reads “The owner of Bally Sports is in bankruptcy proceedings, and we have offered them multiple options to continue to carry their networks. They have declined each one, and we no longer have the rights to continue carrying their content. As a result, we’ll be issuing proactive monthly credits to customers for the loss of this network.”

A statement that Comcast gave to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains that it’s expecting to be crediting impacted subscribers by $8 to $10 dollars. 

Not to go quietly, Diamond Sports Group fired back in their statement, explaining that Comcast “refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours” and that as a “fans-first company”, they were hoping to resolve this so that broadcasts could resume. They closed the statement with directing Comcast customers to competing services that had carriage agreements in place. 

It’s clear that no one wins here, but the fans are the ones most significantly impacted. The Atlanta Braves, short of applying pressure behind the scenes, can’t do anything to resolve this and get their fans the ability to resume watching their games again. And this isn’t just an issue with the Braves - all eleven Bally Sports teams, including the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers, and Minnesota Twins, are currently also unavailable to Comcast subscribers. 

MLB.tv is an option for those who live outside of the broadcast area, but the Atlanta Braves viewing area is the largest for any team in the Eastern United States, owing to TBS’s role as a superstation and the subsequent expanse of Braves Country. 

The Braves in their statement reminded all fans that they could always utilize the radio feed from the Atlanta Braves Radio Network, available from 680 The Fan and affiliates across the Southeast.