Major League Baseball on regional sports networks

List

Online streaming of local games

Until 2020, all in-market streaming rights for each team were controlled by Major League Baseball.

For a period, the Yankees and Padres streamed their regional games online through subscription services, but as of the 2015 season, only the Toronto Blue Jays offered in-market streaming of their games to authenticated subscribers of the team's broadcaster within its designated market (Sportsnet also sells access to its networks, and these games, as an over-the-top subscription service). Regional games were not available on TV Everywhere services such as Fox Sports Go or the NBC Sports app, and in-market streaming is not available via MLB.tv because games are always blacked out for in-market teams.

Current commissioner Rob Manfred stated in an April 2015 interview with the Wall Street Journal that MLB planned to finalize a plan to allow in-market streaming of regional games "some time this year". Major League Baseball and representatives of its regional broadcasters have attempted to negotiate how in-market streaming for U.S. teams would operate, including whether digital rights to regional games would be centralized and held by an exclusive partner, and whether local rightsholders would be able to distribute the telecasts through their own services and apps, or whether all in-market games would have to be offered through existing MLB apps. Providers objected to having in-market streaming be MLB-controlled, as they would gain access to users' credentials.

As of the 2016 Major League Baseball season, Fox reached a three-year deal to offer in-market streaming of its 15 teams to authenticated subscribers of the corresponding Fox Sports Networks. Fox pays a digital rights fee for each team, and the streams are managed by MLB Advanced Media but delivered through the existing Fox Sports Go applications. Wider adoption began to spread in the 2017 season, with NBC Sports Regional Networks and SportsNet New York (via the NBC Sports app), Root Sports (now AT&T SportsNet in most markets), and NESN launching in-market streaming of their local teams.

As of the 2020 season, MLB's owners voted unanimously to revert ownership of "certain in-market digital rights" to the teams themselves. Commissioner Manfred stated that digital streaming had become "substitutional with broadcast rights", and that these changes would allow teams more flexibility in selling their digital rights in the future. However, such arrangements may still be subject to negotiations with existing regional rightsholders.

Games distributed by MLB

Since 2023, as a result of corporate decisions by companies that distribute MLB games, the league has begun to distribute games for some of its clubs directly to viewers.

Before the 2023 season, Diamond Sports Group, which operates the Bally Sports networks and which held the television rights to 14 of MLB's 30 clubs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which operated three AT&T SportsNet channels, announced that it would exit the RSN business. In response to the potential loss of broadcasters for 17 of its teams, the league created MLB Local Media, a new division, and hired Doug Johnson as senior vice president and executive producer of local media, Greg Pennell as senior VP of local media, and Kendall Burgess as VP of local media technical operations. Johnson had worked for AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh. Pennell and Burgess were previously employees of Bally Sports.

On May 30, 2023, MLB announced that it would take over Padres broadcasts starting the following day, after Bally Sports San Diego failed to make payments to the team during a grace period. The Padres are the first team for which MLB produces all regional telecasts. On July 18, following Bally Sports Arizona's failure to make payments to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a similar grace period, MLB decided to take over production of regional telecasts of Diamondbacks games for the rest of the 2023 regular season.

In 2024, MLB took over broadcasts for the Colorado Rockies; including the Padres and Diamondbacks, the league distributed telecasts for three of its clubs. Starting in 2025, MLB distributes broadcasts for five clubs, adding the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins broadcasts to its local media department. In 2025, the Seattle Mariners' broadcasts were produced by MLB Local Media, but Root Sports Northwest continues to distribute the team's games via its own television channel and direct-to-consumer streaming service. After the season, the Mariners shut down Root Sports Northwest and move to MLB Local Media starting in 2026. On January 14, 2026, the Washington Nationals became the seventh team to have its games produced by MLB after its broadcast agreement with MASN expired.

References

References

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2. "Rogers to offer all Sportsnet content in streaming service". CBC News.
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4. (August 17, 2015). "MLB, Fox break impasse in streaming talks".
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6. (November 20, 2015). "MLB, Fox Sports Agree To Three-Year Deal For In-Market Game Streaming, Beginning In '16".
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9. (April 3, 2017). "Root Sports reaches deal to stream Astros games".
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13. Rizzo, Lillian. (March 15, 2023). "Diamond Sports, largest owner of regional sports networks, files for bankruptcy".
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17. (February 8, 2024). "MLB commissioner pegs 2025 target for a half-league streaming package". The New York Times Company.
18. (October 8, 2024). "MLB to produce, distribute local games for Guardians, Brewers and Twins in 2025". MLB.com.
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23. (January 14, 2026). "Nationals games to be broadcast in 2026 on Nationals.TV".