Texas Rangers reveal first peg of multi-pronged TV approach

The Texas Rangers are going at it alone in 2025 as the only MLB team not inked to a regional sports network or ceding local rights to the league itself.

Instead, as was revealed last month, the Rangers are taking a unique approach to production and distribution of its local broadcasts. And the franchise took its first step in revealing that plan on Wednesday, announcing that Rangers games will be available on the direct-to-consumer streaming platform Victory+.

Victory+ is already the streaming home of the NHL’s Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks — both of which stream for free on the platform. The Rangers, however, will charge $100 per season for access to games on the service. Wednesday’s announcement says that the Rangers’ deal is “multi-year,” so fans can expect Victory+ to air Rangers games for at least the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

While streaming will be one option for Rangers fans to watch games this upcoming season, it won’t be the only one.

“The Rangers’ partnership with Victory+ as our direct-to-consumer provider is a tremendous first step as the club continues to finalize our television offerings for 2025 game broadcasts,” said Neil Leibman, Chairman, Rangers Sports Media & Entertainment Company in the announcement. Other viewing options for the team are expected to be announced “in the coming weeks.”

Those options will likely address the linear component of Texas Rangers viewing. As of now, the Rangers are the only MLB team without a linear television deal for the 2025 season. According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, a linear component “would include traditional cable and potentially some over-the-air broadcasts.”

Last year, per Grant, the Rangers were only able to reach 16% of the 16.5 million households in their territory while on their old Bally Sports Southwest deal. As stated by team officials, the primary goal of the Rangers’ new approach is to vastly increase that reach and leverage its comparatively large broadcast territory that spans Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas.

The team expects its multifaceted approach to secure more revenue from annual rights fees than either a renegotiated deal with the rebranded FanDuel Sports Network or having MLB produce and distribute its games would have.

Before Diamond Sports Group (now Main Street Sports Group) entered bankruptcy, the Rangers sported one of the most lucrative local rights deals in all of baseball. While its combination linear/streaming approach likely won’t reach those same levels, the hope is that it’ll come closer than what a traditional RSN deal could command.