The Tigers released a full schedule for televised Grapefruit League broadcasts on Friday. However, we’re still waiting on the details for Tigers TV and how and when games will be broadcast on local cable providers. The club thought those details would be finalized this week, but apparently we’re not quite there yet. In the meantime, the televised broadcasts this spring will mainly be free games of the day on MLB.tv, so anyone with an account will be able to watch them without paying for a season
package. Most of them will also be on MLB Network, with ESPN carrying a March 2 matchup at home against the Braves.
10 of the remainng 24 games are slated to be MLB.tv free games of the day, so they will be available to anyone with an account, even if it isn’t active, with no home blackouts involved. That amount of broadcasts is pretty standard for the Grapefruit League. Most games will be available via the Tigers Radio Network as always.
On top of negotiating out all the broadcast rights in partnership with MLB, there’s also the matter of producing their own broadcasts, so there are a lot of things that may be holding up the Tigers TV package, which will eventually be available on MLB.tv. The Tigers will produce their own home broadcasts March 1st, 7th, and 21st, featuring the teams broadcasters. That probably means Dan Dickerson running the show for the most part, but Jason Benetti should get in at least one trial run with the new setup when he isn’t busy with national obligations covering March Madness.
So for now, if you don’t already have MLB.tv you should be able to just establish an account without purchasing a package, and watch the free games in March. At some point, the Tigers TV package will be ready for order, and we should find out about cable providers carrying the games in partnership with the Tigers along the way as well. At that point, everyone can figure out what’s best for their home viewing during the season.
