Don’t Panic: Twins TV/Streaming Won’t Change Despite MLB’s ESPN Deal

[John Bonnes]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

This afternoon, Major League Baseball announced the anticipated new media-rights agreement granting ESPN rights to distribute local games for six teams beginning in the 2026 season—including the Minnesota Twins. While this represents a significant change in the league’s broader TV and streaming strategy, Twins fans can relax; nothing changes about how you watch games.

• In-market streaming: Twins.TV will continue to carry all in-market games for fans in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Iowa.
• Out-of-market streaming: MLB.TV remains the option for out-of-market viewers (with the usual blackout rules).
• The MLB.TV and Twins.TV bundle will remain available.
• Traditional TV: The deal does not affect 2026 local television distribution. You should continue watching on the same carrier, same channel, and same subscription tier you used last year.

In addition, MLB will gain an additional distribution lane and may choose to stream select games on the ESPN app or related platforms. Those specifics haven’t been announced, but whatever ESPN adds will be in addition to, not instead of, Twins.TV or your current TV provider.

In addition, this deal should not affect the broadcasts themselves, as it is a distribution rights deal, and doesn’t affect the production of the broadcasts. 

After last season’s rocky rollout of Twins.TV (including late carrier announcements and MLB server issues on Opening Day), this stability is a welcome development. Fans will be able to watch exactly as Twins Daily's TV/Streaming Guide directed you to in 2025: Twins.TV for streaming, and the same TV provider and channel for cable/satellite.

From that standpoint, the announcement is straightforward, but it represents a much bigger deal to MLB. This is an early step toward consolidating national television and streaming rights, which is an especially important development for smaller markets. Unlike the NFL or NBA, where the bulk of television money is shared, local television revenues represent a major difference between large- and small-market teams in MLB. The hope is that grouping most MLB teams into a single deal will help address that inherent disparity. 

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[DJL44]

With Twins.TV you won't get the Apple TV games, games on FOX or NBC, or the Netflix Field of Dreams game next season, but it looks like you'll get everything else.

[matt]

Same price?

[LewFordLives]

Some of the other stories on this development are not clear. They make it sound like you have to subscribe to ESPN first and then buy an add on.

[tony&rodney]

Ok, now can we have a different roster than the one from last September or is that an ornery request?

[Reptevia]

So I still can’t watch them. Got it. 

[matt]

1 hour ago, LewFordLives said:

Some of the other stories on this development are not clear. They make it sound like you have to subscribe to ESPN first and then buy an add on.

Yeah, that's unclear to me, too, which is why I was curious about price.

[IndianaTwin]

• Out-of-market streaming: MLB.TV remains the option for out-of-market viewers (with the usual stupid blackout rules).

 

FTFY. With games against two ALC teams and two NLC teams blacked out here, that's roughly 20 percent of the games not being available on MLB.TV. We get a few of those back because of the Sox being on our cable package. Annoying. 

[The Great Hambino]

I just don't understand why Manfred would willingly hand over their entire out-of-market package to a shrinking platform like ESPN

[old nurse]

Baseball claimed that 19.4 billion minutes of baseball was viewed by streaming worldwide. The average length of a game was just under 160 minutes .  If every game was watched beginning to end, that would be 121,250,000  game views. views. There were 2477 games plus playoffs.  Might be off a rainout or two.   That is less than 50k viewers per game worldwide. That is not good ratings 

[BobAzar]

Im a STH (or MyTwins member 🙄), and I got an email yesterday saying that you DO NOT need to pay for the ESPN streaming in order to get the twins.tv. 

heres it pasted from the email.

• Your 2026 subscription will be renewed in the same fashion through Twins.TV, and you will be able to stream all Twins games (except exclusive national broadcasts) via Twins.TV.
• You do NOT need to purchase the ESPN app to stream Twins baseball in 2026.
• TwinsTV linear options (e.g. cable, satellite, OTA, etc.) remain consistent in 2026 as well.
• There are no changes to the production or graphics of Twins.TV as a result of the MLB/ESPN partnership.