MLB and the Cincinnati Reds have announced “Reds TV”. Reds fans across the Reds TV market are no longer subject to blackouts. Major League Baseball will produce and broadcast Cincinnati Reds games in 2025. Viewers can view the Reds on the MLB app and MLB.com. Bally Sports/Fanduel TV will no longer show Reds content and games. Viewership has the potential to grow from 1.1 million households being able to watch the Cincinnati Reds to an estimated 13.5 million households.

How much is going to cost?

Fans can pay $19.99 per month or $99 a year to catch every Reds game with ZERO blackout restrictions. You can still pay for the complete MLB.TV package and get every team, every game. Then watch the Reds games two hours after the completion of the game. That package will cost you $149.99 per year or $29.99 if you choose to purchase it monthly.

MLB.TV also has additional shows on the platform like Carded, Inside Stitch, and several documentaries. If you prefer the radio experience, it has the radio feeds of both the home and away feeds with no blackouts. If you are a fan of the minor leagues, it also has the live broadcasts of most of the teams minor league affiliates. Plus it gives you convinced versions of each game that are usually 7-10 minutes long each that are available roughly 2 hours after the final out. And lastly, MLB Big Inning is also available. This is a show that gives you live look ins to up to 4 games as once, only one will have audio, narrated by an on air MLB Network personality.

The point is, you now have choices. You can decide depending on if you consider yourself a Reds fan or an overall baseball fan. And choices are never bad.

“Partnering with Major League Baseball ensures a bright future for our televised game coverage,” Reds president/CEO Phil Castellini said. “This collaboration provides fans with unprecedented access to Reds games, including direct-to-consumer streaming with no blackouts, while maintaining traditional cable and satellite TV options.”

Are there other advantages to “Reds TV”?

With MLB producing the games, the graphics package will see a dramatic improvement. Fans can expect features like umpire cams, more camera angles, mic’d up players and more. It’s not yet confirmed if John Sadak, Chris Welsh and other contributors will be retained, as they are employed by Bally, but I imagine they would most likely stay with the team.

What are the financial ramifications for the reds?

Without the local revenue markets, and by severing ties with Bally Sports/Fanduel Network the short-term television revenue will decrease, and will most likely decrease significantly. The Reds contract with Bally Sports was thought to be worth somewhere around $60MM annually.

To give you a short explanation, with getting to complicated, the agreement with Bally Sports gave the Reds and other teams a “rights fee.” It was a flat guaranteed fee and then Bally made money by selling advertising (that was why sometimes you saw different advertisements on the pitchers mound in different innings for example) and other avenues.

In switching from the Regional Sports Network to the Direct to Consumer model, MLB becomes the entity who gives the Reds a percentage of the money they are able to recoup for advertising and other money streams.

“We will maintain payroll levels at or above 2024. And we will continue to give Nick Krall, Terry Francona and the entire Reds baseball operations the resources they need to field a championship caliber team at the major league level.” Said Doug Healy, the Reds’ chief operating officer and chief financial officer.

The Current MLB Television Landscape

Diamond Sports emerged from bankruptcy after nearly two years of reorganization that left DSG with just six of its original 14 MLB teams on renegotiated rights deals: the Braves, Cardinals, Marlins, Angels, Tigers and Rays. The Reds are the 7th team joining the Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Twins, Guardians and Brewers to decide to join the DTC model with MLB.

Let me give you an example that was reported by Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Taking the National League Central into consideration both the Reds and Brewers have decided to go with the DTC route using MLB. The St. Louis Cardinals, on the other hand chose to renegotiate their current contract with Bally Sports which has now rebranded itself as FanDuel Sports Network. They reportedly, signed a three year deal with a roughly 20% reduction in the annual fee paid by DSN per year of the original agreed deal of $75MM per season.

This is a big step in the future of baseball media and I’m glad the Reds were able to get into this situation now and not be stuck in a worse situation financially.

Photo Credit; Reddit, YouTube, Sports Illustrated, Cincinnati Enquirer

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