After 20 months, the company that held the Angels TV rights emerged from a federal bankruptcy court Thursday, still intact as a company and still holding the Angels‘ television rights.
Much ado about nothing? On the contrary.
Over the next four years, this company will find out how many fans are willing to pay for a streaming subscription to watch their favorite team, and how much they are willing to pay for it. Major League Baseball will conduct the same experiment, with a handful of different teams.
By then, and informed by this data, MLB should have a pretty good idea of what the national media — not just the usual suspects of ESPN, Fox and TBS, but also tech giants such as Apple, Amazon and YouTube – might be willing to pay the league for broadcast rights. How you watch baseball beyond 2028 could be very different from how you watch baseball next year.
How can I watch Angels next year?
The same way you did this year, and more.
The Angels have agreed to a new deal with FanDuel Sports Networkthe new name of Bally Sports. You can watch via a cable, satellite, or streaming service, as you were able to last year.
FanDuel has also secured the rights to offer the Angels on a streaming-only basis, meaning you don’t need to subscribe to anything else. You can sign up directly with FanDuel or through Amazon Prime, although the fee is added to your Amazon Prime bill and is not included there.
No pricing has been announced, although San Diego Padres games were broadcast by MLB last season at $19.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
Learn more: Angels owner Arte Moreno optimistic about team’s new TV deal: ‘We’re increasing our payroll’
How can I watch the Dodgers next year?
The same way you did this year: with a subscription to a cable, satellite or streaming service that carries SportsNet LA, or with a streaming-only option that requires getting broadband service and Spectrum television.
Spectrum has no changes to announce, a company spokesperson said Thursday. To minimize losses from the Dodgers’ record $8.35 billion contract for local television, Spectrum is promoting itself as the exclusive way to watch the Dodgers and exploits this exclusivity to sell subscriptions to other packages and services.
SportsNet LA is not part of the FanDuel channels and therefore was not part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
What if I want to watch the Dodgers or Angels but don’t live in the Los Angeles market?
You’ll still need to purchase an out-of-market subscription to mlb.tv, priced this year at $29.99 per month or $149.99 per year. This gave access to all off-market games; access for only single team games costs $129.99 per year.
Why can’t I pay a price to watch the Dodgers or Angels, wherever I live and however I want to watch, and without any games being banned?
For Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob ManfredIt’s the Holy Grail.
In exchange for spending billions of dollars on MLB teams over the past two decades, local TV stations have demanded exclusivity. If you wanted to watch your local team, you paid, with a cable or satellite subscription that required you to pay for dozens of other channels you didn’t watch.
This goose that lays the golden eggs is dead. In the best of all possible worlds, you don’t have to pay for CNN or the Hallmark Channel just to see your favorite baseball team.
The FanDuel Channels’ parent company declared bankruptcy, and Manfred hoped that MLB teams would take back their broadcast rights and grant them to the league.
Of the 14 teams under Bally’s banner last year, the Angels and five others reached new deals with FanDuel. MLB now owns the rights to the Padres and six other teams, with the Kansas City Royals still undecided and the Texas Rangers considering launching their own broadcasts.
Why is 2028 so important?
In court documents, the FanDuel Channels’ parent company projected that streaming revenues would grow so much that the channels would be profitable even if cable and satellite revenues fell by nearly half over the next four years.
MLB is not convinced. However, the Angels signed a three-year deal and FanDuel’s five other teams also agreed to short-term deals that expire no later than 2028, according to a person familiar with the matter.
At that point, the league’s national broadcasts with ESPN, Fox and TBS will expire. Streaming rights could incentivize any of these broadcasters to pay to keep MLB games — and could also entice companies like Apple, Amazon or YouTube to bid.
As long as the Dodgers and other big-name teams like the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees continue to generate a lot of money on their own, they are unlikely to license their broadcast rights to MLB .
However, by 2028, if MLB can consolidate the teams it currently broadcasts with FanDuel teams, a set of roughly half the league’s teams could be attractive — and, for fans of those teams, potentially without blackout.
This story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
