Some franchises are not getting large TV revenues in 2025.
The big Major League Baseball free agency news is not about Juan Soto and his future contract. The real story is what money is not available to numerous franchises because cable TV deals between the Sinclair owned Diamond Sports Group and a number of franchise owners have crumbled. Sinclair’s sports business declared bankruptcy and the company really only wants to keep the Atlanta area regional sports network. Major League Baseball plans to produce games for Cleveland, Milwaukee and Minnesota’s franchises. In 2024, MLB produced Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres games. For those franchises, MLB will have direct-to-consumer streaming options as well as negotiated cable and satellite distribution as well as over-the-air TV availability. It sounds good, but then the reality hits home. The regional networks were paying big bucks to the teams, but MLB, while producing the games, is not funding the various teams with lots of money. In fact, the teams are getting pennies on the dollar under the MLB deals.
In 2024, San Diego, after losing its regional sports network partner, offered packages that cost either $19.99 per month or $99.99 for the entire season to stream local games without dealing with blackouts. Padres’ games became far more expensive for the consumer than when the franchise had a deal in place with the regional sports network because everyone who had cable in the San Diego market paid for the network if it was part of a tier, not just Padres’ fans. MLB, along with the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League franchises, is facing a new reality. Cable TV cord cutters are impacting cable TV revenues and if the revenues fall, there will be less money for players’ salaries and that can give cover to owners who don’t want to spend big money on players. It is MLB’s brave new world.
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Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
