01/15/25 12:29:00
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01/15 12:27 CST Texas Rangers will stream broadcasts after seasons of difficult
access to games
Texas Rangers will stream broadcasts after seasons of difficult access to games
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Baseball Writer
The Texas Rangers are making their regional game broadcasts available directly
to consumers in a streaming package they say is the first step in providing
multiple viewing options after several seasons of access issues.
The MLB team announced Wednesday that it entered into a multiyear agreement
with A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC) to stream Rangers regional games on the
Victory+ service starting this year.
That is the same streaming service that took over regional broadcasts for the
NHL's Dallas Stars this season. While Stars games and extra content are
streamed for free, access for Rangers games will cost $100 for the full season.
"The Rangers' partnership with Victory+ as our direct-to-consumer provider is a
tremendous first step as the club continues to finalize our television
offerings for 2025 game broadcasts," said Chief Operating Officer Neil Leibman,
the team's president of business operations. "Victory+ has proven itself over
the past few months as a reliable streaming home for several professional
sports teams, and we feel Rangers fans will enjoy the familiarity, convenience
and simplicity of this service."
While the team didn't say what the additional options will be, those could
include traditional cable and possibly some over-the-air broadcasts. The
Rangers, who have more than 16 million households in their broadcast territory
over parts of five states, said details about those options would be announced
in the coming weeks.
Both the Rangers and Stars previously had their regional broadcasts on Bally
Sports Southwest, part of the financially troubled Diamond Sports Group that
has gone through a bankruptcy reorganization. The Stars and Diamond mutually
agreed last summer to end their existing rights agreement. The Rangers' deal
with the group expired at the end of last season.
With Bally Sports Southwest not available through some cable companies and many
popular streaming platforms, there were times when fans of the Rangers, Stars
and NBA's Dallas Mavericks had issues trying to watch games during a period
when all of those teams were having success. The Rangers were World Series
champions in 2023, before the Mavericks made it to the NBA Finals last summer
and the Stars made it to the NHL Western Conference final.
APMC, which also does broadcasts for the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, announced last
month that early metrics for the Victory+ service and live games showed three
to four times higher viewership and more than a half million downloads.
The Mavericks this season began a multiyear local broadcast rights agreement
with TEGNA that reaches about 10 million people in more than 3.1 million Texas
households.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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