MLB Now Producing Padres’ Telecasts, Other Teams May Follow

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

As of May 31, Major League Baseball is producing and marketing television coverage of San Diego Padres’ games. This is not an unexpected development, as Diamond Sports Network, the parent company of Bally’s Sports Network  (a series of Regional Sports Networks, RSNs), including the one that had produced Padres’ games on television, recently filed for bankruptcy and was in default on payments to several clubs.

Now that MLB has taken over coverage of the Padres’ games, we are seeing where the future of MLB on television is going. In an article in The Athletic by Evan Drellich, the author provides how pricing will work:

…making them (Padres’ games) available to fans as a blackout-free standalone subscription for $19.99/month or $74.99/year. The league also has deals in place with a few cable providers. The on-camera talent, including Don Orsillo and Mark Grant, will not change.

Fans have bemoaned blackouts of MLB games for years. The RSNs have traditionally purchased the broadcast rights, then made it so no other coverage could be shown in the defined regional area. An example would be Cubs’ games in the Midwest. The regional area for the Cubs covers several states, and if cable companies in those states choose not to have the RSN in their channel lineups, streaming is not allowed. Commissioner Rob Manfred has been very open about his preference to break the RSN model, so fans could purchase and stream games as they wish. The Padres are providing the pilot program. Other teams may soon follow suit.

Diamond Sports Network cited another reason for defaulting on payments (other teams impacted are the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Twins, and Rangers). The number of people who have some type of cable or satellite television service has declined in the period since they signed many of their contracts with MLB clubs. According to Insider Intelligence, over 54% of Americans will no longer have cable or satellite television services by the end of 2023. While some streaming services provide RSNs, there is a gap (some people are relying on free, over-the-air television) between the reach the RSNs had as recently as five years ago and how many homes they can reach now.

Teams that own or partially own their RSNs (such as the Mets and Yankees) follow a different model, and can choose to stream in their local markets (as SNY does). The breaking of the RSN paradigm, and the monopoly they had on coverage in their local markets, is a positive for MLB fans. However, as noted above, fans will still have to pay a fairly significant amount of money for the rights to watch their local teams’ games, albeit with more flexibility.

As more teams move away from RSNs, seeing the evolution of this new way of covering MLB games will be interesting. Will MLB try to produce games for more and more teams, or will they outsource coverage (probably quite likely)? What types of packages will they offer? Will it be $74.99 per team per year, or will there be divisional and league packages at special pricing?

Manfred says he wants baseball to be available to more fans and allow them to consume MLB content in ways that work for them without RSN restrictions; that’s just good business. How affordable MLB content will be in the future remains to be seen (as well as the quality of streaming production, how will it will play on various devices, etc.). The current situation with Padres, and the possible expansion to a few other teams, may provide a period for the natural glitches to be worked out. In fact, many feel the current streaming on Apple TV+, and Peacock is intended to do just that, test the concept and get it ready for prime time.

Baseball has changed on the field in recent years. It’s not stopping there. The rule changes have generally been well-received (the free runner in extra innings is not a fan favorite). If increased streaming with fewer restrictions brings the game to more fans in an affordable way, it will be an off-field win for MLB.

The post MLB Now Producing Padres’ Telecasts, Other Teams May Follow first appeared on Metsmerized Online.