The Texas Rangers are only one year off a World Series title, but their local television rights have proved a challenging puzzle to solve.
Earlier this year, the Rangers revealed that they would leave Diamond Sports Group’s formerly named Bally Sports Southwest in favor of an independent broadcast model that would include a direct-to-consumer streaming app. Now, the rest of the plan is coming into focus.
According to a report by Mac Engel in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Wednesday, the Rangers are seeking to negotiate local media rights agreements directly with cable and satellite companies, a decidedly unique approach compared to their peers. Per Engel:
Rangers primary owner Ray Davis and ownership are pursuing a TV plan where the team would negotiate individual contracts with providers such as DirecTV, Hulu, Charter, YouTube, et al. The Rangers would effectively create their own regional sports network (RSN), and it would make it much easier for fans to watch their games.
The club’s goal is to broaden local viewership of their regular-season games, while coming as close as possible to their previous annual right’s revenues generated from their collapsed TV deal with Bally Sports. Their original contract with what was then Fox Sports Southwest was in the area of $110 million every year. Last year, as a band aid deal with Bally Sports, the figure was reduced to $90 million. The team is now trying to maximize what they can get, which industry experts project to be a bit more than $60 million for the 2025 season.
Now, plenty of teams have created their own RSNs in the past, but this seems a bit different. It seems like the Rangers aren’t seeking to create a 24/7 linear RSN so much as they’re simply trying to make their games (and presumably associated shoulder programming) available on various distributors. Hence, the team can forego any additional costs that come with running a traditional RSN, like finding programming for windows where they’re not airing live sports.
The approach is completely novel compared to what other MLB franchises have done. Following Diamond Sports Group’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, seven teams decided to re-up with the company, albeit typically at reduced fees. Others have opted to cede their media rights to MLB, who in turn will produce and distribute the broadcasts.
Who knows whether the Rangers’ approach to business will work, but as franchises enter the Wild West for local media rights, it’s at least worth a shot.
