Report: Texas Rangers to consider creating their own Regional Sports Network

The Texas Rangers will develop their own Regional Sports Network and end their partnership with Bally Sports according to reporting from Sports Business Journal’s Tom Friend.

The Rangers deal with Bally Sports ends after Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Angels.

Earlier in the year Bally Sports’ parent company, Diamond Sports Group, agreed to a restructure of its debt in a bid that could’ve seen Rangers’ games be aired on Amazon Prime.

The team becomes the latest DFW sports franchise to leave Bally Sports joining the Dallas Stars and Mavericks who have found new broadcasting options for their upcoming seasons.

According to Friend’s sources, Bally Sports offered the Rangers a competitive rights fee to remain but the team decided to pursue their own venture which is expected to receive distribution through Charter and DirectTV.

The Rangers RSN would provide pre and post-game shows and the game itself and be owned and operated by the team.

In a statement at Sports Business Journal’s AXS DRIVE which was held in Frisco from Sept. 16-19, Rangers President of Business Operations & COO Neil Leibman said the franchise had to improve viewership availability.

“We have a five-state territory, 16.5 million households and only 16% — a little over 2 million people — can watch our games,” Leibman said. “We have to fix that.”

The Rangers’ ownership of their own RSN could be the first step in expanding said viewership availability.