MLB reportedly plans streaming service so Royals fans without cable in KC can watch
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When Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred was in Iowa for the “Field of Dreams” game in August, he addressed the concerns of some baseball fans whose viewing options were limited.
Even if fans paid for MLB.TV, they were unable to watch the Royals, Twins, White Sox, Cubs, Cardinals or Brewers because of blackout restrictions, the Des Moines Register noted.
“There’s nothing more important to us as a business priority than delivering games to fans; that’s what we’re about,” Manfred said, per the Washington Post. “The blackout situation is a complicated one. It involves regional broadcast distributors, our individual clubs and us
“We are spending a tremendous amount of time in an effort to get to a better place in terms of where our games are distributed. It is the top priority for us right now.”
Royals fans who no longer have a cable subscription may have scoffed at Manfred’s comment about making sure games are available to those who want to watch.
Many fans were unable to see the Royals play this season because they cut the cord and their lone choice of a package with Bally Sports Kansas City, the channel that shows Royals games in the team’s local viewing territory, was the pricey AT&T TV streaming option. Others have a cable subscription that didn’t include Bally Sports KC.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for those fans.
The New York Post reported Major League Baseball is hoping to launch a video-streaming service in 2023 that would allow fans without a cable subscription to watch local games.
The NBA and NHL are considering a partnership with MLB on the new streaming service, the Post story said, and the cost “would vary by geographic market and could be between $10 and $20 a month.”
That Post story said a new streaming service would pay teams based on viewership in their local markets. That could be good news for the Royals, whose games on Bally Sports Kansas City (and Fox Sports Kansas City before that) often ranked in the top-five among all MLB teams.
As for cable companies, MLB would give “a piece of the streaming revenue to compensate for potential subscriber losses.”
Additionally, the league is considering a proposal from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns Bally Sports Kansas City and other Regional Sports Networks, to cut the roughly $1 billion in annual fees Sinclair pays teams for cable broadcast rights, the Post story says.
