The Cincinnati Reds ended their relationship with Diamond Sports Group and FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports Ohio) last week. The two sides could not come to an agreement with regards to a renegotiation of their contract and the Reds walked away with Diamond Sports Group buying Cincinnati’s stake in the company for one dollar (yes, one dollar). That left the Reds without a broadcast partner for 2025, though they were never going to be without one – we just weren’t sure what it would look like. Today we found out that the games will be produced and distributed through Major League Baseball. In a similar deal to what Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Minnesota have, the Reds will be available to watch through direct to consumer portals.
What does that mean, exactly? Well, if nothing else, it means that fans can purchase a Reds-only package through MLB.tv and watch the games no matter where they live. Blackout rules will no longer apply and you will not need a cable/satellite/streaming company to carry a channel for you to tune in. This is similar to what was available for Arizona, San Diego, and Colorado last year when they were dropped by what was the Bally Sports. Major League Baseball was able to get those three teams onto another channel within many local cable/satellite/streaming company channel lineups, too.
It seems that the Reds plan for that to happen, too. Phil Castellini, the Reds president and CEO, said this in the team’s press release, “This collaboration provides fans with unpredecented access to Reds games, including direct-to-consumer streaming with no blackouts, while maintaining traditional cable and satellite TV options.”
There was no mention of what channel/station or which carriers will have those games at this point. But it does seem clear that it’s happening given the statement. This is good news for just about everyone except the accountants at Great American Ball Park and the ownership group as there’s almost no possible way that this would be able to match the roughly $60,000,000 estimated revenue they were getting from Bally Sports per year to broadcast the games.
Fans, though, will have far more options available to them. For people like me, it means that I don’t have to subscribe to a cable service for six months to literally only watch the Reds games. That was an expensive bill for one television program a night. While I will still have to pay to watch the games (unless they go crazy and put the games on an over-the-air station, which seems unlikely), it will probably cost me a third of what I was paying before.
For others they may be in luck where their previous television provider did not carry Bally Sports Ohio and they were left without an option short of switching to another provider who may not have other stations/channels they wanted. With this situation, it’s possible that those companies will pick up the games and they’ll be included with the service at no additional charge like has been the case in other cities (and how it was when Bally Sports Ohio was included everywhere on your normal tier of channels).
Here is the entire Press Release from MLB and the Reds:
MLB will produce and distribute local games for the Cincinnati Reds during the 2025 season. The new arrangement will give more Reds fans in the Club’s home television territory the opportunity to watch games on television or to stream digitally with no blackouts for locally distributed games.
The Reds had an average reach of 1.1 million households on its RSN during the 2024 season. With MLB’s direct-to-consumer streaming option, Cincinnati’s games will be able to reach approximately 13.5 million homes across seven states in their region.
Last month, MLB announced it would produce and distribute local games in 2025 for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Minnesota Twins in similar fashion to how the league serviced the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres during the 2024 season. Last season, MLB negotiated cable and satellite distribution agreements and made direct-to-consumer streaming options available at Dbacks.TV, Padres.TV, and Rockies.TV.
“Major League Baseball is proud to serve fans of the historic Cincinnati Reds franchise by expanding the reach of their games and removing blackouts for fans in its expansive territory,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media. “Reds fans will enjoy high-quality production, improved picture quality and greater access to the game and their favorite team’s players.”
“Partnering with Major League Baseball ensures a bright future for our televised game coverage,” said Phil Castellini, Reds President and CEO. “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. And, having MLB’s production expertise and resources behind every Reds game broadcast ensures our fans will have a quality viewing experience.”
Local games produced by MLB last year included special features normally associated with nationally televised games including Ump Cam, live look-ins to the MLB Replay Operations Center, Wire Cam, on-field locations for pregame and postgame, new RF camera with a shallow depth-of-field look, and increased access like in-game interviews with players.
Since 2009, Major League Baseball has owned and operated MLB Network, which has produced live games for 16 seasons, been critically praised for its content, and won 42 National Sports Emmy Awards across 13 different categories. Major League Baseball was the first professional sports league to live-stream a regular season game on August 26, 2002. In 2024, baseball fans streamed 14.5 billion minutes of live baseball games and content on MLB.TV, a record for the service.
More information about where and how fans can watch will be available closer to the 2025 season.
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