After the Brewers chose to exit their contract with Main Street Sports Group (the parent company for FanDuel Sports Network), they were looking for a new broadcast partner for the upcoming season. Yesterday, they announced that MLB will produce and distribute their broadcasts in 2026. Brewers’ President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger confirmed the arrangement in a press conference.
The new deal with MLB will ensure that broadcasts will remain uninterrupted through 2026. All 162 games for
the Brewers will be available to watch in 2026, either through local distribution or through a national broadcaster. They will also all be available through MLB.TV, which is now owned by ESPN under their new media rights agreement. The exact schedule is still to be announced in the coming weeks. This will also include a selection of spring training games.
While there will be some changes to the distribution of games, overall the number of options will increase. Here’s the breakdown on how to watch games this year.
- Streaming in-market: The Brewers will offer a TV package available to purchase directly. Pricing will be announced in the next few weeks as well. It will likely be similar to what the Cardinals announced, which is a $19.99 per month or $99.99 per year package. One important note is you will need to be in the Brewers’ broadcast zone to purchase this package. This includes all of Wisconsin and Iowa, as well as parts of Minnesota, Illinois, and the upper peninsula of Michigan. (These areas match up with the Brewers’ blackout zone.)
- Streaming out-of-market: If you are not in the above areas, nothing changes. While the specific package for the Brewers will not be available, games will still be viewable through MLB.TV. The only restriction is that games in the local team’s market will be blacked out.
- Cable/satellite TV: Games will still be available through select providers. The specific providers and channels have not been announced but will be in the upcoming weeks. (A selection of games will also be broadcast over-the-air locally.)
This means that games will be distributed to more people, including some who haven’t had a way to watch the Brewers in previous years. With the cable TV distribution model, viewing games in-market could be challenging. Disputes between cable providers and the channels distributing the games could mean that games were pulled off of TV packages for parts or all of the season. In addition, people not living close enough to the team could find themselves in zones where they had no TV option available, but were still in the blackout zone so couldn’t watch through MLB.TV either. One of the biggest examples was the state of Iowa, who had no local team yet was claimed as a blackout zone by six different MLB teams.
The new arrangement is much simpler. People who are in the blackout zone still have the option to purchase a cable, satellite, or streaming TV package that includes the Brewers. They can also choose to buy a package direct from MLB for just the Brewers. Outside the blackout zone, MLB.TV remains the primary option. There will be some blackouts included based on local teams, but the majority of games will be viewable.
As for the broadcasts themselves, it will be the same crew returning for the 2026 season. Adam McCalvy reports that the broadcast crew of Brian Anderson, Bill Schroeder, Sophia Minnaert, Tim Dillard, Vinny Rottino, and Jeff Levering will remain on the broadcasts.
The Brewers are not the only new team that MLB will directly produce and distribute. Darragh McDonald of MLB Trade Rumors notes that the Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, and Royals will also fall under MLB’s umbrella. This means that at least 13 of the 30 teams will be produced by MLB in 2026. This also leaves just three teams — the Angels, Braves, and Tigers — still looking for a TV provider after the collapse of Main Street Sports. The Angels and Tigers will likely partner with MLB as well but are still reviewing their options. An additional factor for the Tigers is that the same group also owns the Red Wings, who are currently still under contract by Main Street Sports. As for the Braves, they may choose to start their own platform, similar to what the Rangers did last season. Depending on what they choose to do, MLB may produce the broadcasts for 16 of 30 teams — over half the league.
The main disadvantage of this arrangement is the money that the Brewers will receive. Even though the financial situation of Main Street Sports Group has been in question the last few years, they offered a more lucrative contract than MLB could. The exact numbers are not known, but in a recent post discussing payroll disparity, Travis Sawchik of MLB.com notes that teams earn about 50% of what they would earn with a traditional RSN deal. This is part of the reason that the Brewers have been reluctant to spend this offseason. McDonald also mentions in his article that MLB’s goal may be to hold on to these deals until after 2028. At that time, most of the broadcast deals expire, and these rights could be used as leverage in new deals.
As for Main Street Sports Group, they could be liquidated as soon as this week. Last week, Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal reported that they could be forced to liquidate unless they reached last-minute deals with MLB teams (subscription required). Since several teams announced their partnership with MLB yesterday, that option has fallen through. While Main Street Sports intends to finish the NBA and NHL seasons, they reportedly missed their February payment to teams in both leagues as well. For now, those games will continue as planned, though regulations prohibit team officials from speaking on the current situation.
The new arrangement with MLB will make sure that Brewers’ games will be broadcast without interruption in the new season. There are still questions to resolve for revenue in the future, which is the main downside of this deal. At the same time, the demise of traditional regional sports networks continues, as well as the revenue they provided. The Brewers and other teams will have to adapt to this new reality, but for now, the games will continue to be viewable without interruption.
