In June, the Boston Red Sox became the first MLB team to lauch a direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service with the debut of NESN360. Now, their biggest rivals are getting in the mix. During an interview on the “Carton & Roberts” show, Yankees President Randy Levine, confirmed that a DTC service for the YES Network, which carries the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, is coming soon.
When asked about whether there is a backlash as a result of spreading games across streaming services like Apple TV+, Peacock, and Prime Video, Levine said: “There is always going to be a balance between digital or streaming, and linear, and you have to provide coverage for all of your fan base. Younger fans tend to stream. You’re going to see a direct-to-consumer package come out from YES, very very soon.”
YES Network is jointly-owned by the New York Yankees, Sinclair (who also owns the Bally Sports networks), and Amazon. Sinclair has soft-launched their direct-to-consumer service Bally Sports+ in five markets for their Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs).
Earlier this season, the Yankees moved 21 games, mostly airing on Friday nights, exclusively to Amazon Prime Video. In the past, those games aired on broadcast television, most recently, WPIX.
When asked about the “changing winds” of the media landscape, along with the move to make select games exclusively available on Prime Video, Levine said that “you have to get ahead of it.” He continued, “We have to do a much much better job explaining to our fanbase how to get to those games. I think there are a lot of people who have Amazon Prime, who don’t even know they do, and don’t know how to get to the games. That’s on us, and we got to get better at that.”
YES Network is currently one of the most difficult RSNs to stream. Similar to Bally Sports RSNs, the channel was also dropped by YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and fuboTV over the last two seasons. Currently, the only way to stream the YES Network without a cable subscription is with DIRECTV STREAM, which offers it as part of the $89.99 CHOICE Package.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free 3-Day Trial | Free Trial | Get $10 Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| YES Network | + $29 | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | |
When YES Network does launch their direct-to-consumer service, it likely won’t be cheap. NESN360, the DTC service for the Red Sox, costs $29.99 per month, while Bally Sports+ costs $19.99 monthly. In February, MSG Network, which is the other regional sports network in the New York Metro area, announced plans for a DTC service to launch by the end of the year.