Twins Leaving Bally Sports North: New TV Partner Will Be MLB Itself, Blackouts Are Gone

[Matthew Trueblood]

Our long local nightmare is over. The Twins have a broadcast home for 2025, and it’s not a company in bankruptcy, and blackouts are really going away this time. Just get ready to pony up for the right to stream their games.

Image courtesy of © D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

 

On Tuesday afternoon, the Twins announced that they will be leaving the Diamond Sports Group and have their game broadcasts produced and distributed by MLB itself. In addition to the Padres, Rockies, and Diamondbacks, who played the entire 2024 season under this arrangement, the Twins will be in the same boat as Upper Midwest neighbors the Brewers and the division rival Guardians. The new right allocation will include the ability to stream games within the Twin Cities market, without blackouts, on a direct subscriber model.

 

The announcement is the Twins' first truly fan-friendly move regarding television and streaming rights in several years—not that it’s a terribly high bar to clear. Let's review:

Direct-to-consumer streaming options have not been available for Twins games for any in-market games for several years, as the Twins bargained them away in the TV rights agreement that the Twins had with Diamond Sports/Bally Sports North.

Then, about this time last year, Twins fans were told that since Diamond Sports/Bally Sports North would no longer be paying the Twins for TV rights (later revealed to be worth $54M/year), the Twins player payroll would be slashed. However, at least Twins fans could expect to have games on TV and streaming without in-market blackouts for the 2025 season.

Except then, the Twins re-signed for one year with Diamond Sports/Bally Sports North for a portion of their previous agreement. However, none of that money went to the slashed Twins player payroll. Instead, the Twins announced they needed to “right-size” their spending. Plus, no streaming options and in-market blackouts existed since the old agreement was again back in place. 

The (rancid) icing on the (disgusting) cake came on May 1st, when Diamond Sports and Comcast announced that they could not agree for Bally regional sports channels to remain on Comcast. As a result, from May 1st through July 31st, the biggest cable carrier in Minnesota could not televise Twins games to Twins fans, who also could not stream games because of the Twins’ TV rights agreement with Diamond Sports.

Today’s announcement could be viewed as all parties involved finally agreeing that it was time to rip off the bandage if one hadn’t watched it being slowly and painfully pulled for the last several years. To be fair to the parties involved, they all previously had a pretty sweet deal, including Twins fans, as the TV revenues were largely being carried by cable subscribers who had no interest in baseball.

Previously, because Bally’s Sports North (BSN) was part of the basic cable package, they charged Comcast for every cable subscriber they had, whether the subscriber wanted to watch sports or not. That’s how it works for every basic cable channel, but not every channel charges the estimated $8-10 per month that BSN demands. For instance, if a million local cable subscribers are paying $8/month for 12 months per year, that’s $96M in gross revenues per year. One can quickly get to the point where a $54M annual TV-rights contract makes sense. 

However, as part of the new agreement that got BSN back on Comcast, BSN is now a tiered channel, meaning subscribers need to opt into it for something like $20/month. That changes the business model significantly. For instance, in the example above, BSN would need to get 400,000 of Comcast’s million subscribers to opt in to get the same revenue. The actual number of households that will pay an extra $20/month for sports is likely a fraction of that. 

The same goes for streaming. While it’s the future, it suffers from the same problem that BSN faces with Comcast—it only bills those who opt in. That’s why the Twins kept sacrificing it as an option to sign their much more lucrative TV deal with Diamond Sports. 

The new deal means the middleman is gone, at least for now. Twins fans can watch their team via TV or the internet by paying MLB (essentially) directly, whether they are cutting the cord or not. The new deal also recognizes that those lucrative TV rights days are likely gone forever for baseball teams and regional sports networks. Moving to MLB Media’s platform means the Twins are trading the past’s significant revenues for the present’s ability to meet their fan base wherever their fan base wants. So long as they opt in.

That decision would have been much more admirable if the past’s significant revenues had remained an option. And had the Twins not been dragged to that realization over the last year, kicking and screaming.

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[Vanimal46]

It’s a good decision. Make it ridiculously easy to stumble upon the games. This should help bringing back apathetic fans and attract new eyes to the team. 

[dberthia]

It's a start. Now they need to give folks a reason to watch.

[Brandon]

So we are in that phase of going from watching DVDs to streaming at Netflix of 12 years ago give or take.  

[C-Gangster]

Will everyone stay Like Audra Martin, Coury Provous, Justin Morneaou. Please tell me they are.

[Mike Sixel]

This is what MLB wanted before Bally outbid them...

[C-Gangster]

I mean i think its a really good but also me and my family spent a lot of money for Fubo. So hopefully we can watch it there i think we will but im not sure.

[TheLeviathan]

It's the only move they had, give them credit for not dragging their feet.  I would like to see them find a local channel as well.

This also cements their media revenue as "paltry" going forward, just so there are no illusions about the ramifications of this correct decision.

[Post-Concussive Blues]

Great news for fans! MLB will probably have to subsidize/revenue share even more for these teams now though.

[Matthew Trueblood]

8 minutes ago, C-Gangster said:

I mean i think its a really good but also me and my family spent a lot of money for Fubo. So hopefully we can watch it there i think we will but im not sure.

I think you'll be able to, but if you primarily have Fubo for Twins reasons, I would cancel it! It'll be much cheaper to buy their package directly--even to buy that AND, for instance, Netflix or Peacock.

Now, if it's just a replacement for cable, different equation.

[MinnesotaTwins26]

FINALLY!!!!!!!

[JADBP]

14 minutes ago, Brandon said:

So we are in that phase of going from watching DVDs to streaming at Netflix of 12 years ago give or take.  

Exactly.  Kind of like how it took MLV.tv 4-5 years just to get to Hi Def TV.  Prob get to 4K by 2030 or so.  The problem is that Amazon is jumping up and down screaming We Want In! and we have Billions of $$$ to spend to get into streaming MLB!  They already stream some games, some NFl, WNBA and other sports….and did I say they have $$$Billions to spend?  Twins should have been the FIRST to jump to all-Amazon.  I bet they would have got a bonus and all of our payroll limits could have vanished (presuming the Pohlads don’t pocket it all)!

[thelanges5]

I’m sure we’ll get more details. I don’t live in the red part of Iowa on the map. Does that mean I’m not in the market? 
 

 

[Dave Borton]

11 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

I’m sure we’ll get more details. I don’t live in the red part of Iowa on the map. Does that mean I’m not in the market? 
 

 

I would love to know what survey/demographics make it possible to close out Southern Iowa and Western South Daknota. Really able to slice it that thin?

[DJL44]

Quote

Last season, the Guardians' reach on its RSN was approximately 1.45 million households and the Twins reached approximately 1.08 million homes. With MLB’s direct-to-consumer streaming option, Cleveland’s games now can reach up to approximately 4.86 million households (+235%) and Minnesota expands to approximately 4.40 million homes (+307%). 

 

[DJL44]

14 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

I’m sure we’ll get more details. I don’t live in the red part of Iowa on the map. Does that mean I’m not in the market? 

I think that means you can get out-of-market streaming through MLB.tv.

[SF Twins Fan]

 

[bean5302]

I'll believe it when I see it. Wonder how this will work for the few season ticket holders next year? 

[jud6312]

11 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

 

If that's the cost, I will 100% pay that. I'd even straight up pay for MLB TV, which I think is more, provided I could access Twins games. Would've done it before this, too.

 

Blackouts have always been silly - I'm glad MLB is finally recognizing it.

[SF Twins Fan]

2 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I'll believe it when I see it. Wonder how this will work for the few season ticket holders next year? 

What? This same product has already been used for three other teams this past season....  How what will work for the season ticket holders? What?

[SF Twins Fan]

Just now, jud6312 said:

If that's the cost, I will 100% pay that. I'd even straight up pay for MLB TV, which I think is more, provided I could access Twins games. Would've done it before this, too.

 

Blackouts have always been silly - I'm glad MLB is finally recognizing it.

I think the price is fine.  When I was living out of state, I purchased both MLB.tv and NHL.tv, and the prices for both were similar.

After next season it will be interesting to see what the number of subscribers is.  How much of a decrease in TV revenue will the Twins receive?  I'm assuming MLB will receive a portion of the $99 subscription fee but what's the breakdown?  How many of the estimated 4.4 million households will subscribe?

[Hubie29]

Do you think they will be available on DISH network?  How do you think it will work if so?

[CRF]

Sounds good so far, but lets all hope the devil isn't in the details. I'm not counting on anything just yet. 

[strumdatjag]

9 minutes ago, CRF said:

Sounds good so far, but let’s all hope the devil isn't in the details. I'm not counting on anything just yet. 

Dish is set to merge with Directv.   
From another source, I learned that the Twins announced that the games would still be available on Cable and Satellite TV.   Hurray for old guys like me who never stream (at least without a dose of prostate medications).  

[strumdatjag]

One problem, it always was clear that hometown announcers were discouraged from criticizing their own team.  With MLB in charge, will they now extend to the opposing team, indeed all teams and MLB itself????

[weitz41]

Well, this offseason has started better than the last one..

 

[jkcarew]

43 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

How many of the estimated 4.4 million households will subscribe?

A small fraction.

This is a fan friendly move (finally)…assuming you’re a die-hard fan. But, it’s also admitting defeat by the Twins. Streaming services aren’t going to absorb what the cable companies finally rejected. The entities that ponied up the huge rights money are gone, and with them goes the huge TV revenue…and it ain’t coming back anytime soon.

[S Bart]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

I think that means you can get out-of-market streaming through MLB.tv.

 

If you need to stream, select the one offered by MLB over the Amazon package. I had one in 2023 and the other in 2024. The MLB additional features such as interesting bios. as well as the Hall of Fame ceremony.

[Jocko87]

34 minutes ago, strumdatjag said:

Dish is set to merge with Directv.   
From another source, I learned that the Twins announced that the games would still be available on Cable and Satellite TV.   Hurray for old guys like me who never stream (at least without a dose of prostate medications).  

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you are doing streaming wrong.  I've said previously that I'd help anyone get setup to stream games but this might be a next of kin question. 

I guess the Black Hills in South Dakota is still Rockies country.  The portion of Iowa is still concerning but hopefully they can cover it with something.  

If MLB can figure out how to broadcast everyone in Iowa, they'll be close to having this thing clicked. 

[Whitey333]

Very happy they attacked this issue so quickly.  The details and pricing will determine how good it is.  But on the surface it looks great.  Good jib Twins.