On Wednesday, the Colorado Rockies made it official: Major League Baseball will produce and distribute the team’s games in 2024.
The team announced the launch of Rockies.TV, which will allow fans in-market to stream all Rockies games (that aren’t national exclusives) without a cable or satellite subscription. This was expected following last fall’s shutdown of AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the Rockies long-time cable home.
The package will cost $19.99 monthly or $99.99 for the whole season. An additional bundle offers MLB.TV in addition to Rockies.TV, costing $39.99 per month or $199.99 for the full season.
The offer is the same for the San Diego Padres, who launched Padres.TV on Wednesday. MLB began to produce and distribute Padres games early on in the 2023 season after Bally Sports San Diego dropped the team.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a similar plan has not been announced for the Arizona Diamondbacks. MLB took over the production and distribution of Diamondbacks games over the summer after they were dropped by Bally Sports Arizona.
While details for the Rockies broadcasts have yet to be announced, it’s expected that they’ll be similar to previous seasons, with the same announcers along with pregame and postgame programming. Last season, when MLB took over the Diamondbacks and Padres broadcasts, this is what happened. However, following her hiring by the Oakland Athletics and NBC Sports California on Wednesday, Jenny Cavnar will not be part of Rockies broadcasts in 2024.
Broadcast plans for cable and satellite customers have also yet to be announced. Last season, Diamondbacks and Padres games aired locally on various cable and satellite providers after MLB took over.
The Rockies’ media rights landing with MLB in 2024 wasn’t a surprise. The only other regional sports network (RSN) in the Denver market is Altitude, which airs the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets but has its own carriage issues in the region. The Rockies weren’t going to start their own RSN from scratch and a deal with a company owning a local broadcast network (specifically Scripps, which owns a pair of networks in the market) never came about. The team defaulting to MLB production and distribution seemed to be the most likely option for 2024, and the Rockies answered that question on Wednesday.
