MLB will broadcast Cincinnati Reds games in 2025 with no local blackouts
The Reds become the 7th team under the MLB broadcast umbrella.
We are Fox Sports!
We are Ohio!
Those words became ubiquitous during televised coverage of Cincinnati Reds baseball games for a lengthy period of time as streaming of Reds games, and all other games, became more and more available through Major League Baseball’s At-Bat app. That ended abruptly in March of 2021, however, as a rebranding to Bally Sports ushered in a new era of how Reds games were covered.
Diamond Sports Group, which owned Bally Sports, rebranded to FanDuel Sports Network in October of this year, doing so after it had already spent roughly a year and a half in bankruptcy due to the fact that they pretty well wildly overpaid for the initial broadcasting rights. Considering the Reds retained a small portion of the actual ownership of the broadcasting rights, they, too, were mired in litigation until recently agreeing to part with their share for the robust sum of $1 to be free to finally pursue another way of having their games on TV for the 2025 season.
It did not take long for that resolution to come forward. On Thursday afternoon, it was announced that MLB itself will broadcast Reds games in 2025, something they’ll also be doing for the likes of the Guardians, Brewers, and Twins, among others.
The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans relayed the press release on Bluesky.
Big news from the Reds -- their games will be produced by MLB. Locally available games will have no blackouts, you should be able to get direct-to-consumer streaming
— C Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent.bsky.social) 2024-11-14T18:48:37.818Z
While all signs pointed towards MLB taking over the broadcast rights for 2025 (at least), there was still some question as to what would become of the arcane blackout rules that have been in place for years. As it turns out, there will be no local blackouts on this broadcast coverage, so a whole new audience of Reds fans who can’t make it to the ballpark will now have the chance to be tapped.
The presumption for now is that the actual broadcast team won’t be altered, so you should still expect to hear the same familiar, dulcet tones in the booth as you’ve heard in recent seasons. What we cannot yet presume, though, is how much revenue will be impacted by the shift to MLB from what Bally had been paying the Reds, as well as what that will do to the actual payroll of the club for the 2025 season.