What Will Minnesota Twins Do Now That They’re Free of Bally Sports North?
What Will Minnesota Twins Do Now That They’re Free of Bally Sports North?
Other MLB teams have reclaimed their broadcast rights from Diamond Sports Group this year, but the Twins are the first to have their rights revert during the offseason.
Team by team, Major League Baseball is achieving its goal of reclaiming all of its clubs’ broadcast rights from Diamond Sports Group (DSG). The broadcaster, which owns the collection of Bally Sports regional sports networks as well as the streaming platform Bally Sports+ is still in bankruptcy court trying to reduce its debt load, and has surrendered or seen the expiration of contracts with the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins in 2023.
- The Twins’ contract with Bally Sports North expired in October of 2023.
- The Athletic reports the team would like to keep games on cable, as well as establish an in-market streaming option.
- Expanding its audience and reducing blackouts are the two most important goals of the team heading into the 2024 season.
Where Will Minnesota Twins Games Be Shown in 2024?
The Padres and Diamondbacks saw their rights dropped by Diamond in the middle of the season this year, forcing MLB to assume responsibility for producing broadcasts of those teams’ games. The Twins could also see MLB take over their broadcasts, but the club had its contract with DSG expire following the end of the season, leaving it ample time to find a new partner before the start of the 2024 season.
The team’s top priorities are finding a partner that will expand their reach, as well as giving fans a way to navigate around TV blackouts. According to The Athletic, the team estimates it reached only 1.3 million of the 4.3 million households in its territory last season, and team president Dave St. Peter knows that number has to improve for the sake of the fans.
“Our objectives have always been to find ways to maximize the reach of our games and our brand,” St. Peter said. “We feel as though we would be in a strong position to do that hopefully before Opening Day of 2024. We also recognize there’s tremendous disruption in the traditional cable/satellite model. We’re trying to navigate through that disruption. We certainly understand the challenges. But we also over time I think see the opportunities that can come from expanded reach and from making sure anybody, anywhere within our television territory has the ability to watch our games. There are certain options or trade-offs on all of these options. We’re trying to find the right one for the fans, not just for 2024, but for the long term.”
The Twins won’t be departing cable entirely, as other major league sports teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Jazz have done this year. But The Athletic also mentions the team is looking to offer an in-market streaming option as part of its next broadcasting deal, so that users who don’t get the cable channel the club ends up on will have a way to access Twins games. If its next broadcasting partner does not have a streaming platform to put Twins games on, the team could end up offering an in-market option on the normally out-of-market MLB.TV platform, as the Diamondbacks and Padres did last season.
Where Does MLB Stand with Diamond Sports Group?
MLB’s relationship with DSG is downright abysmal, these days. In October, the league filed an objection in bankruptcy court to Diamond’s request for another extension in turning in its debt relief plan. Baseball’s representatives argued in the filing that DSG has had enough time to produce a reorganization plan already, and that the more time the court gives it the less likely a resolution becomes.
Diamond responded to that filing last week, saying that it might give up more unprofitable MLB contracts before the end of this year and offering to surrender all of its deals with clubs following the 2024 season. A hearing on whether Diamond’s extension request will be granted was scheduled for Nov. 15.
The outcome of that meeting won’t affect the Twins, unless they decide to re-up with Bally Sports North for another short-term deal. That seems unlikely as of now, but all options are on the table for the club as it attempts to find the best broadcasting partner for its local television rights.
Bally Sports+
Bally Sports+ was a direct-to-consumer streaming service that provided live, in-market games without requiring a cable or satellite subscription. It allowed fans to watch their local Bally Sports regional sports network (RSN) without a traditional TV package.