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Brewers say goodbye to Bally Sports, games will be produced by Major League Baseball next year
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Milwaukee Brewers television broadcasts will be produced and distributed by Major League Baseball next season, signaling the end of the relationship with Diamond Sports Group, the outfit that has been airing games on Bally Sports Wisconsin.
MLB indicated in a release that it will operate the broadcasts for the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins next year, as well. That doubles MLB’s current portfolio of teams for which it handles broadcasts, joining San Diego, Colorado and Arizona. The Texas Rangers have also left Diamond Sports Group, with the future home of their broadcasts to be announced.
“With the media landscape continuing to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can see their favorite Clubs, removing blackouts where we can, and ultimately growing the reach of our game,” said MLB deputy commissioner Noah Garden in a release. “We are proud to bring Guardians, Brewers and Twins games to their passionate fan bases with the same high-quality production that we have demonstrated in Arizona, Colorado and San Diego.”
The Brewers had the option to return to Diamond following the end of its contract in 2024, but Diamond has been enmeshed in bankruptcy proceedings, and MLB has long sought to reclaim streaming rights from each team as a means of offering games free of blackouts in market on MLB’s own app.
It’s all part of the crumbling regional sports network (RSN) model, and Diamond’s bankruptcy has cultivated uncertainty around broadcasts for a number of MLB, NBA and NHL teams.
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Here’s what all this means for you.
How will the Brewers broadcasts change in 2024? Will the team have new announcers?
The broadcasts likely won’t look or sound all that different, although the look of on-screen graphics might change.
The announcers would largely be the same (most are team employees, anyway), and it’s likely MLB will negotiate with carriers to get the games on satellite and cable airwaves. The channel might change, and the games might be available in other places (the Padres games are on Fubo, for example, but also cable and satellite), but Brewers fans won’t be short of ways to watch.
MLB’s release boasted of some innovations Brewers fans might find novel, including ump cameras, live look-ins with the MLB Replay Operations Center and increased access to in-game interviews. It’s unclear if the broadcasts will feature a pregame and postgame show that resembles what Brewers fans are used to on Bally Sports broadcasts.
Will it be cheaper for fans to watch Brewers games?
Fans will still be paying roughly the same, but MLB’s native technology is likely to have fewer glitches than what fans often complained about with Bally’s app. Aside from a likely switch in channel, cable and satellite customers should also see no difference.
Padres games, for example, can be found on the MLB.TV app for those in San Diego. Fans can pay $99 for the year to just get Padres games (called the Padres.TV option), but fans who purchase the full package for $200 are also able to view Padres games in-market in addition to all the other games across baseball that are out-of-market.
Will the Brewers’ team payroll be impacted if MLB takes over?
Yes, it’s possible, but the degree to which this becomes a problem hinges on the solutions to distribute games. Milwaukee won’t be alone across MLB in facing this challenge, though logically it stands to reason that MLB’s broadcasting model will yield smaller rights fees than what Diamond was paying.
Baseball already has a revenue-sharing policy and does distribute money to clubs through lucrative national contracts that offers packages of games to places like ESPN or Apple TV+. Those deals reportedly helped MLB secure record gross revenues in 2022.
The Brewers, for what it’s worth, have already decreased payroll in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons from the year before and, oddly enough, won more games each season compared to the year before.
What about Milwaukee Bucks games?
Bucks games are still expected to air on Bally Sports Wisconsin through the 2024-25 season.
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