TEMPE, Ariz. — After an offseason of uncertainty regarding where fans would be able to watch the Arizona Coyotes on television, and with just days to go before the regular season begins, the team finally has an answer.
The Coyotes announced a multi-year agreement with Scripps Sports to air the team's game over the air and allow fans to watch them for free with just an antenna.
64 of the Coyotes' 65 games left this season will be broadcast on channel 61 (KASW/Arizona 61), which is also channel 95 on COX and channel 61 on DirecTV. The only game not broadcast there will be the Coyotes matchup against the San Jose Sharks on Dec. 21, which will be shown on ESPN+.
The Coyotes had been broadcasting their games on channel 15.2 since the beginning of the season, but made the change to make their games more accessible for all Coyotes fans.
If you live outside of the Valley, here is where you can watch the Coyotes:
- Channel 4 on American Entertainment in Flagstaff
- Channel 6 on Optimum in Flagstaff, Sedona and Bullhead City/Lake Havasu
- Channel 11 on Orbitel in Maricopa
- Channel 13 on Mediacom in Pinal County
- Channel 61 on Sparklight in Prescott and Show Low/Winslow
Channel 15.2 will also change from the Antenna Network to CWArizona, but will still broadcast shows from the Antenna Network along with CW programming. CWArizona will be broadcast on channel 6 on COX.
The Coyotes also have a streaming option available for fans as part of a partnership with Kiswe and Scripps Sports called Coyotes Central.
Fans can purchase a monthly subscription for $11.99 or the remainder of the 2023-24 season for $24.99. Pricing for the 2024-25 season will be announced at a later date.
Fans can purchase their subscriptions by going to coyotescentral.com.
This move comes after months of uncertainty regarding the future of Bally Sports Arizona (which declared bankruptcy last spring) and other regional sports networks.
In May, the Phoenix Suns and Mercury announced that they were leaving Bally Sports Arizona and would air their games on Arizona's Family (3TV, CBS 5, and the Arizona's Family Sports Network).
That move was followed by the Arizona Diamondbacks leaving Bally Sports Arizona in July and allowing Major League Baseball to take over the production and distribution of their games.
And Wednesday, the Coyotes and Diamond Sports, Bally Sports Arizona's parent company, agreed to end their broadcast agreement, allowing the team to move to a new television home.
Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo told Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports that this move will allow the team to reach three times more households than they could with Bally Sports and will allow their games to be aired in Utah and New Mexico.
The Coyotes will produce their broadcasts, which will include pre and postgame shows. Fans will see the same faces on their televisions as they did with Bally Sports, as play-by-play announce Matt McConnell, color analyst Tyson Nash, and hosts Todd Walsh and Jody Jackson will return.
Games will be broadcast in Tucson over the air on channel 9.2 (COX channel 85 and Comcast channel 1179).
The Coyotes are also working on creating a direct-to-consumer streaming platform for their games, but the details for that have not been finalized.