Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told owners last week that he'd need the local digital rights for about 14 league clubs in order to launch a direct-to-consumer, live-streamed local game service.
Earlier this week, MLB gained local streaming rights to a third team, with the league announcing a new DTC service for the Colorado Rockies. Here's the homepage.
Fans of the National League West perennial cellar-dwellers can pay $99.99 for the full 2024 season of Rockies.tv, or bundle it with the league's longstanding out-of-area-games package, MLB.tv, for $199 for the season.
With the MLB season starting March 28, the Rockies still don't have a linear pay TV option for their local home-game broadcasts. Last year, Warner Bros Discovery, which controlled the team's regional sports network home, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, exited the local sports cable business. The RSN shut down last fall.
In the middle of last season, MLB also assumed control of local TV rights -- both linear pay TV and DTC streaming -- for the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Sinclair subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group used the legal wherewithal of Chapter 11 restructuring to cut those two teams loose from their respective Bally Sports RSN contracts. This came after the Padres and the Diamondbacks were reluctant to trim their fees and give up their digital rights to Diamond.
