Texas Rangers leaving Diamond Sports Group, considering local media options for 2025

The never-ending saga of the Rangers’ local TV rights has inched along a little more.

They officially won’t be back with the parent company of Bally Sports Southwest or whatever it becomes if it exists in 2025. Where they will end up remains uncertain.

In a news release Tuesday afternoon, Major League Baseball announced that three more clubs will leave Diamond Sports, which had operated a number of regional sports networks before declaring Ch. 11 bankruptcy and going through a reorganization. MLB will take over production of the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins games for 2025.

It brings the total of MLB-produced broadcasts to six individually branded local TV networks. MLB had already been producing games for San Diego, Arizona and Colorado.

“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 games,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media. “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.”

According to the release, the Rangers “have determined that they will no longer be partnering with Diamond Sports Group and are considering their local media options for the 2025 season.”

Where the Rangers are concerned, Tuesday’s developments are not a terribly significant or surprising turn of events. Two Rangers officials with knowledge of the club’s negotiations had confirmed to The Dallas Morning News more than two weeks ago that the club had been pursuing the idea of creating its own Regional Sports Network. Owning their own RSN would potentially be more lucrative than turning over production to MLB.

The announcement does not close the door on the possibility of the Rangers eventually landing on an MLB-produced product, but the release made it clear the Rangers were pursuing their own opportunities.

Creating an RSN, however, and negotiating carriage deals is a multi-layered issue and the Rangers don’t have final agreements in place on anything. The hope would be to encompass both linear (cable/satellite) and direct-to-consumer (streaming) options for fans in a new RSN. In addition, the Rangers could potentially negotiate a deal with local TV stations in their territory for a limited package of over-the-air broadcasts.

Beyond acknowledging the statement in the MLB release, Rangers officials declined to comment on the situation Tuesday.

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