Six U.S. baseball teams — Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins. San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Ray — are actively looking to secure revenue from local game broadcasters after a planned deal with British sports TV group DAZN did not materialize.
Until recently, these six teams had local broadcast deals with Main Street Sports Group, but the company began missing rights-fee payments, and now the Major League Baseball’s own production and distribution division could handle their local coverage if new broadcasters are not found.
Some MLB franchises, like the Atlanta Braves, are even planning to start their own local TV networks, since MLB’s in-house TV operations do not guarantee rights fees in advance.
Traditionally, MLB teams receive up to about 25 percent of their revenue from local television rights. The Los Angeles Dodgers, for example, have a local TV deal that pays them roughly 330 million dollars a year until the late 2030s.
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