The Cleveland Guardians will hold baseball training in Cleveland in preparation for the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers on Friday, October 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
(AP) – Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that it will produce and distribute local broadcasts of the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins next year. All three teams’ contracts with Diamond Sports Group expired at the end of the regular season.
The Texas Rangers, whose contract also expired last month, also announced that they will no longer partner with Diamond. They are currently considering their options for next season.
The addition of the Guardians, Brewers, and Twins means MLB will be responsible for producing and distributing at least six teams by 2025.
MLB has taken over broadcasts for the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks during the 2023 season, and this year for the Colorado Rockies.
Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers’ president of business operations, said he expects more teams could partner with MLB before the start of next season.
“This has been a long process. It’s a very careful process.” he said. “We achieved this after a lot of work and analysis, and we think this will be a game-changer for us and our content.”
MLB expects the broadcast takeover will increase the team’s market reach by at least 2 million households in each market. The Diamondbacks went from being available in 930,000 homes on regional sports networks to 5.6 million homes through a combination of local cable systems, satellite broadcasts, and direct-to-consumer streaming.
“As the media landscape continues to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving fans by ensuring they can see their favorite clubs, eliminating outages wherever possible, and ultimately expanding the reach of our games.” We are committed to providing.” Noah Garden, MLB’s deputy commissioner of business and media, said in a statement.
The Twins took a public relations hit in Minnesota after cutting player salaries for 2024 after winning the division and winning their first postseason series in 22 years to account for a reduction in rights fees from Diamond. Although the MLB-produced model would mean a complete loss of rights fees, team president Dave St. Peter said the announcement would not affect player spending next season.
“We have spent a significant amount of time with Major League Baseball to better understand this market and what a model like this could ultimately do for teams. We also looked closely at what happened in San Diego, Arizona and Colorado. We’re used to those economic conditions. They’re there.” St. Peter said:
“We expect local revenue to the Twins to decline in 2025, and I think that’s true. That said, in the long run, we have tremendous confidence in our content, and in 25 years may decline, but we believe that viewership and the economics associated with that viewership will increase over time.”
The Cleveland game was available to approximately 1.45 million households on regional sports networks. Its reach is expected to increase by 235% to 4.86 million households. Minnesota will see a 307% increase from 1.08 million homes to 4.4 million.
Schlesinger said the Brewers had 800,000 households that could receive last season’s games, but he also expects the new model to significantly increase that number.
“From a fan standpoint, it’s great because we have full access and no power outages.” he said. “It takes a lot of staffing, a lot of infrastructure, a lot of decisions, you have to hire a lot of people, you have to contact a lot of sponsors, and now is the perfect time to do this. This is a good jumping off point, and when the calendar turns to 2025, we are already fully immersed in this game and we know when the first game will start, we will be ready and the product will be excellent. It’s a platform to make sure we know what’s going to happen.”
MLB could acquire more teams as Diamond Sports Group continues to file for bankruptcy. The owner of the nation’s largest regional sports network could end up showing only Atlanta Braves games in 2025.
The operator of Bally Sports Regional Network filed a plan of reorganization in federal bankruptcy court in Houston last week. As part of the reorganization, Diamond voided contracts with the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays and cut contracts with five franchises that are part owners of regional sports networks: the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, and Los Angeles. I’m planning on starting over. Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals.
St. Peter said he expects more teams to sign on to the model in the future.
“We’ll start building our direct-to-consumer base. This is clearly the future of how we deliver our games. Now is the time to get into it, and we’re looking forward to it.” St. Peters said. “Our owners understand the consequences, but I think the long-term upside far outweighs the short-term downside.”
A final hearing on Diamond’s reorganization plan is scheduled for Nov. 14. Diamond also owns the rights to 13 NBA teams and eight NHL teams.
Diamond Sports Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired the regional sports network from Walt Disney Co. in 2019 for nearly $10 billion. Disney was required by the Department of Justice to sell the network in order to acquire 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets. Approved.
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