With pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training in just a few weeks, rubber is meeting the road for the nine MLB clubs that decided to leave Main Street Sports Group, owner of the FanDuel Sports Networks, prior to the company’s likely shutdown this April.
On Monday, it was confirmed that all nine MLB teams previously inked to deals with Main Street would be looking for alternatives this season. Of those nine teams, six announced on Monday that they will join MLB’s media arm for the upcoming season: the Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Cardinals, and Reds. The other three teams are the Braves, Angels, and Tigers. The Braves are expected to launch their own network, similar to how the Rangers went about their local broadcasts last season. So far, plans for the Angels and Tigers are unclear.
As for the six teams moving over to the league’s outfit, expect the setup to look similar to the seven clubs already under the league’s control. MLB will handle production and distribution for the games, striking deals with cable and satellite distributors in the local markets to ensure linear distribution, and offering an in-market streaming package via MLB.tv for the digitally-inclined. Rather than receiving a set fee as teams are accustomed to under the traditional RSN model, MLB will pay these teams out based on the revenue earned from distribution deals and ad sales, save for the cost the league incurs to produce the games.
Clubs can expect local broadcast revenue to take a substantial hit under this model, though their games will become more accessible. Many of these league-affiliated teams are also striking separate packages with local over-the-air broadcasters for a select number of games throughout the season.
With the departure of all nine clubs from Main Street, and with at least six joining the league’s media arm, MLB will control local broadcasts for at least 13 of its 30 teams this upcoming season. In addition to the six teams that joined Monday, the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Rockies, Twins, Padres, Mariners, and Nationals had already announced plans to either join or return to the league’s media umbrella.
By 2028, the league hopes to control local broadcast rights for all 30 clubs with the hope of selling said rights in one centralized package to a prominent streamer. It wasn’t necessarily the plan to have nearly half the league under its purview so soon — the league wants its 30 clubs to maximize local broadcast revenue before 2028, which for most clubs would happen under a traditional RSN deal — but it does help to know that many teams are already on board with the league’s plan.
Now, we await announcements from the Tigers and Angels. Should both opt to join the league’s media arm, MLB will control production and distribution for half of its teams. Perhaps the Tigers and Angels believe another route is more lucrative, such as joining a platform like Victory+ or striking their own direct-to-distributor deals.
Whatever the case, MLB has seen quite the shakeup to its local media rights this offseason.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.