MLB Local Media

MLB Local Media is a division of Major League Baseball that produces and distributes regional television broadcasts for various MLB teams. Established prior to the 2023 season, and leveraging resources from MLB Network, the division has primarily served teams who no longer had a broadcaster due to business issues affecting their regional sports network rightsholders, including the then-ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group (now Main Street Sports Group)—owner of FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports), and the dismantling of AT&T SportsNet.

The division began operations in earnest on May 31, 2023, when it took over broadcast rights to the San Diego Padres after Diamond missed a payment to the team; the new MLB productions would maintain the team-contracted staff (including commentators) and freelance employees who worked the team's telecasts on Bally Sports San Diego. It would also take over rights to the Arizona Diamondbacks later in the season, after Diamond opted out of its contract with the team. The Colorado Rockies were added in the 2024 season after the closure of AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, and it began to produce the national package ''MLB Sunday Leadoff'' for The Roku Channel. It added the rights to the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins beginning in the 2025 season, and took over production of Seattle Mariners telecasts on behalf of Root Sports Northwest.

MLB Local Media regional broadcasts are distributed via ''ad-hoc'' agreements with television providers in each team's home market, as well as over-the-top (OTT) subscription packages hosted by MLB.tv (branded under names such as Padres.tv and DBacks.tv), available separately from MLB.tv's out-of-market service. Beginning in the 2025 season, MLB Local Media also began to syndicate packages of broadcasts to terrestrial television stations in the teams' local markets.

Overview

Background

On February 24, 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery, owners of the AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks, announced that it would leave the RSN business. At the time, AT&T SportsNet held the rights to three MLB teams: the Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros. The company sent messages to those teams, notifying them they had until March 31 to reach an agreement to take their rights back or acquire the networks. If no deal was made before the deadline, Warner Bros. Discovery stated that the channels would go into Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. Root Sports Northwest, a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery and the Seattle Mariners, was not affected by the announcement. Despite the March deadline, Major League Baseball negotiated a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to keep the networks operational through the 2023 Major League Baseball season. The Houston and Pittsburgh networks would be sold to joint ventures of their respective teams, while WBD would later sell its stake in Root Sports to the Mariners.

On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group, owners of the Bally Sports regional sports networks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing came 30 days after the company failed to make a $140M interest payment. At the time, Diamond Sports held the rights to 14 MLB teams: the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers.

History

In January 2023, MLB hired Billy Chambers—a former executive of Bally Sports' predecessor Fox Sports Networks—as its executive vice president of local media; Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred stated that Chambers would "play an integral role in how we navigate the rapidly evolving local media landscape in the future". In March 2023, MLB Local Media was formally established, with the hiring of former SportsNet Pittsburgh executive Doug Johnson, and former Bally Sports executives Greg Pennell and Kendall Burgess; all three would report to Chambers. It was anticipated that the group could take over broadcasts of teams under AT&T SportsNet or Bally Sports on short notice if they are unable to continue their relationships with the teams; MLB Local Media had been working with MLB Network staff to prepare for such a scenario, including adapting an existing MLB Network graphics package so that it could be readily customized for individual teams.

In May 2023, Diamond Sports was on the verge of missing a second straight rights payment to the San Diego Padres, with a grace period expiring on the 31st; the rights to the team would revert to Major League Baseball on this date if the deadline were missed. Chambers and the MLB Local Media team were on standby for the Padres' series at the Miami Marlins, and began preparing its production on May 30, with only 24 hours' notice. The new broadcasting arrangements would involve ''ad-hoc'' agreements between MLB and individual television providers in the San Diego Padres' market, including Cox Cable (where games would air on YurView California; under its former name 4SD, the channel was the former home of the Padres prior to their agreement with Fox/Bally), as well as an over-the-top, in-market subscription package hosted on the MLB.tv platform known as Padres.tv. The service is a separate subscription from MLB.tv's out-of-market service.

The MLB-produced telecasts inherited the Padres' existing broadcast team and other team-contracted staff. Once the team returned to San Diego, MLB Local Media inherited the mobile production units and freelance employees that had been used by Diamond. MLB Local Media aimed for the broadcasts' technological aspects to be at parity with those of the previous Bally productions, while also increasing use of new technology such as shallow depth-of-field cameras. The inaugural broadcast featured a special introduction narrated by sportscaster and MLB Network contributor Bob Costas.

On June 22, 2023, Diamond announced its intention to reject its contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 30, 2023. Diamond and the Arizona Diamondbacks later released a joint statement pushing back the hearing and agreeing to continue Diamond's broadcast of Diamondbacks' games. The contract was officially rejected on July 18. As with the Padres, MLB Local Media took over production. Over the season, MLB Local Media began to deploy additional cameras, including gimbal cameras, wirecams, and umpire cams, and also began to focus on increasing access to players in-game via microphones.

For the 2024 season, MLB Local Media announced they would also produce and distribute games for the Colorado Rockies, who formerly aired games on the now-defunct AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. In addition, the broadcasts began to receive access to programming such as Minor League Baseball games and the ''MLB Big Inning'' whiparound show in the event of weather delays. The three teams received updates to their graphics to add additional team-specific elements, and move the score bug to the bottom-right of the screen following feedback from directors. In May 2024, MLB Local Media also began to oversee production of the ''MLB Sunday Leadoff'' package with its move to The Roku Channel.

On October 8, 2024, MLB Local Media announced that it would tentatively add the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, and Minnesota Twins in the 2025 season; all three teams' contracts with Diamond had expired at the end of the 2024 season. Later in November, the Cincinnati Reds mutually agreed to end its agreement with Diamond and FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, and also signed with MLB Local Media for the 2025 season. The same month, ''The Athletic'' reported that MLB Local Media would also take over production of Seattle Mariners games, although the telecasts will continue to be broadcast as normal on Root Sports Northwest.

On December 31, 2024, after Diamond offered to re-enter negotiations with the team earlier that month, the Brewers announced that they had opted to renew with Diamond instead and remain on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin. On January 13, 2025, the Reds similarly announced that it had renewed with Main Street, and would also remain on FanDuel Sports Network for 2025.

On March 26, 2025, the Diamondbacks, Padres, and Rockies announced that they would simulcast a package of games on Tegna stations in each team's home market (KPNX, KFMB and its DT2 subchannel, and the KUSA/ KTVD duopoly respectively); the Twins would later announce a similar simulcast deal with Minneapolis-St. Paul Fox station KMSP-TV and Gray Media stations in the Twins' outer markets, with the Guardians following with WKYC in Cleveland. Ahead of the 2025 season, MLB announced that Progressive Insurance would serve as presenting sponsor for Diamondbacks and Twins broadcasts.

Current regional broadcast rights

See also

* Other MLB television packages produced directly by Major League Baseball:
** The Baseball Network
** ''MLB Network Showcase''
** ''Friday Night Baseball''
* Rangers Sports Network, a similar arrangement operated in-house by the Texas Rangers

References

{{U.S. regional sports networks

Local Media
Television channels and stations established in 2023