How to watch Indiana Pacers games on Bally Sports during Comcast Xfinity outage
The Indiana Pacers are in the middle of a Round 1 NBA playoff series with the Milwaukee Bucks, but some fans will have issues watching.
Indiana, which is up 3-2 on Milwaukee, has its games air locally on Bally Sports Indiana. On Wednesday, Comcast Xfinity customers lost access to Bally Sports after a carrier agreement could not be reached between Comcast and Bally Sports’ operator Diamond Sports Group.
"It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept Bally Sports channels on the air and have pulled our signals," a statement from Diamond Sports Group noted. "As a result, Bally Sports broadcasts are unavailable to Comcast subscribers. We encourage you to contact Comcast directly at 1-800-Xfinity. In the meantime, alternative viewing options can be found at www.getmyhometeams.com. Fans can subscribe to Bally Sports+ for direct-to-consumer (DTC) access to programming for the teams for which Diamond retains DTC rights or access Bally Sports channels by subscribing to Fubo, DirecTV or DirecTV STREAM."
MORE: Watch Indiana Pacers games with Bally Sports during Xfinity outage with Fubo (free trial)
Comcast Xfinity-Bally Sports outage explained
Diamond Sports Group, owner of 18 Bally Sports regional stations, and Comcast, which owns Xfinity, failed to reach a new carrier agreement before an April 30 deadline.
Diamond Sports declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023. A year later, the group submitted a reorganization plan, which included ridding the group of its naming rights deal with Bally.
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How to watch Indiana Pacers on Bally Sports without Xfinity
TV channel: Bally Sports Indiana locally (except for Xfinity customers), NBA TV (out of market), national broadcasts
Stream: Bally Sports+ app, FUBO (free trial)
How to download Bally Sports app
You can watch Bally Sports+ on BallySports.com, Amazon Fire, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Samsung TVs and mobile/tablet devices (iOS and Android).
Here's step-by-step instructions on how to download the Bally Sports+ app on an Apple/iOS device or tablet:
Open the App Store
Select Search and enter "Bally Sports"
Select the Bally Sports app
To begin downloading, select Get and enter the password for your Apple ID, if requested
Register account, subscribe, watch
Click here to view instructions on how to download BallySports + on other platforms.
Bally Sports bankruptcy update
Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in March of 2023.
The NBA and DSG had its one-year agreement approved by a federal bankruptcy judge earlier this year to allow the Bally Sports regional networks to broadcast the 2023-24 NBA season before returning the TV rights back to the NBA after this season.
As noted in an article from Barrett Sports Media on Wednesday, Xfinity dropping Bally Sports comes two weeks after "a bankruptcy judge had approved a disclosure statement with $450 million of debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, $350 million of which is allocated to pay its first-lien debt holders." It also mentioned that Amazon — which already produces Thursday Night Football during the NFL season on Amazon Prime — is prepared to invest $100 million into Diamond Sports Group as part of the restructuring of DSG by becoming the primary streaming partner for the company. That has not been approved by the bankruptcy court.
Pacers schedule: TV, times, dates
The Pacers play the Bucks in Game 6 on TNT at 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 2. Game 7, if needed, will take place on Saturday, May 4.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Xfinity-Bally Sports outage: How to watch Pacers games during blackout