ARLINGTON, TEXAS – As many Twins fans say remain unable to watch games on cableMajor League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said a league-produced broadcast with local streaming available is a potential alternative for next season.
Twins agreed to a one-year contract extension in February with Diamond Sports, the parent company of Bally Sports North. Twins Games were not available on Comcast since May 1 due to a contractual dispute between Diamond, which is trying to emerge from bankruptcy, and the cable company.
“We’ve said to the clubs: We’re available to you as an alternative,” Manfred said Tuesday. “If, in fact, your rights are exhausted and you find an RSN (regional sports network) deal, whether it’s with Bally’s or someone else – or for that matter, a terrestrial broadcast deal that suits you, those are your local rights. God bless you, do what you want to do.”
Twins They explored potential partners with their television rights last season, including the MLB-produced version, before reuniting with Bally Sports for another season.
Three teams — the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks — have league-produced broadcasts after losing contracts with their regional sports networks. The league has distribution deals with some cable providers, and games can be streamed locally on the MLB website for $99.99 without interruption.
“Unlike Bally, we have a distribution agreement with Comcast,” Manfred said. “We will go directly to the cable distributor and carry MLB.TV in the market to give you a digital alternative. We believe this will increase our reach by giving people who have cut the cord the ability to watch local games.”
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Of the three broadcasts produced by MLB, Manfred said San Diego has been the most successful market, “approaching 40,000 subscribers,” for the online streaming service.
“We’ve had real success in the digital space,” Manfred said. “That said, from a revenue perspective, it’s not generating as much revenue as RSNs. RSNs were a great business, a lot of people were paying for programming they didn’t necessarily want. It’s hard to replicate that type of revenue without that type of bundling concept.”
Manfred wants to secure the television rights to all 30 teams to establish a nationalized streaming package by 2028, a shift from the regional sports network model. He said he met with media companies at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, last week to discuss the place of live sports in the future of streaming.
He thanked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for agreeing to an 11-year, $76 billion deal with ESPN/ABC, NBC and Amazon Prime Video.
“When you talk to the streaming industry, they’re not really interested in buying the state of Wisconsin and two counties in Michigan,” Manfred said. “They want to be able to stream, quite frankly, all over the United States and Canada, but more broadly, internationally.”
“These conversations are coming from owners saying, ‘Oh my gosh, the RSN business is really going downhill. We know the future is streaming. What we’re hearing from streamers is they want a more national product. We have to be responsive to what people want to buy.’”
There will inevitably be some opposition from big-market teams to a nationalized TV package, and Manfred believes they may have to start with just half the league. The New York Yankees earned $143 million from their TV network in 2022, according to Forbes.
The Twins earned $54.8 million from Bally Sports North last year, and almost certainly came back for much less money this season. Diamond has asked a federal bankruptcy court to keep this year’s contract amount under seal.
“It may be another question when we are better prepared to come back to the market in 2028, but certainly in this interim period it is up to the clubs to judge whether the alternative we are proposing is the best, or whether there is another better alternative on the market,” Manfred said. “I am very supportive of the idea that we want them to do something, if we think we have a model that really works, we have to be the best, like any other company.”
