One of the biggest stories in sports media over the past few years has been the bankruptcy proceedings of Diamond Sports Group (now known as Main Street Sports Group). Entering the 2023 season, Diamond carried the broadcasts for 14 of the 30 MLB clubs in addition to many NBA and NHL franchises. During that season, Diamond lost a bankruptcy court case against MLB in which it argued that the rights fees it owed clubs should’ve been reduced due to changes in market dynamics in the era of cord-cutting and the decline of cable television. It had already missed payments to certain teams earlier that season, so the company was quickly put in a position to decide whether to keep or cut their existing contracts. The first two teams Diamond cut in 2023 were the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

While Diamond broadcasted games for 12 MLB clubs for the 2024 season on its Bally Sports channels, it announced last October that it planned to void the contracts for all its remaining teams with the exception a standalone rights deal with the Atlanta Braves. Three of its contracts were already set to expire at the conclusion of the 2024 season, but eight teams were essentially freed from their legacy in-market rights deals with Diamond Sports.

At the time of the announcement, some believed that outside of its deal with the Braves, Diamond was essentially exiting the baseball broadcasting game. However, in somewhat of an unexpected twist, the company emerged from bankruptcy, formally changed its name to Main Street Sports Group, and negotiated new deals with many of the aforementioned clubs it cut. Some teams including the Reds and Brewers even made previous arrangements with MLB to produce their broadcasts, but eventually reneged to return to Main Street. In all nine teams will appear on the rebranded FanDuel Sports Network in 2025.

One team formerly under the Diamond Sports umbrella that went in another direction was the Texas Rangers. The Rangers could have followed serve with the aforementioned clubs and returned to Main Street. They also could’ve partnered with MLB like the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, and Colorado Rockies did. But the Rangers are opted for a riskier and inherently more difficult path — a network that they will manage from end to end, from broadcast to advertising to distribution.

Last week, club officials unveiled the launch of Rangers Sports Media & Entertainment Company. The company will include the new Rangers Sports Network and the existing REV Entertainment that is the team’s official sports and entertainment partner and official booking agent for events at its current (Globe Life Field) and former (Choctaw Stadium) stadiums. 

Before the announcement, the Rangers entered into a multiyear agreement with A Parent Media Company (APMC) to stream Rangers regional games directly to consumers on the Victory+ service for the 2025 season. The team followed in the footsteps of their local hockey club, the Dallas Stars, in transitioning from Main Street Sports portfolio to the Victory+ streaming platform. As distinguished from Stars games, which are exclusively on Victory+ within the Dallas-Fort Worth market, the Rangers said at the time that the Victory+ deal was only one way for its fans to consume games for the 2025 season.

That’s where Rangers Sports Network comes in. While the team’s agreement with APMC will allow cord-cutters and streamers to watch games on the Victory+ platform, Rangers Sports Network will be available for fans who still subscribe to cable and satellite TV providers. The team announced that the network will be found on Spectrum, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and AT&T U-Verse. So in a sense, whether you are a cord cutter or a loyal cable/satellite subscriber in the DFW market, you have access to Rangers baseball in 2025. The club is also planning to provide local fans with free over-the-air games for Friday home games on CW33.

This comes as great news for Rangers fans, who have experienced several seasons of access issues. Bally Sports Southwest was not available through some cable providers and many popular streaming platforms in the Rangers TV territory. The club’s majority owner Ray Davis said as much last week. “One of the main goals when seeking solutions for Rangers television broadcasts was to give fans more access to our games.” “We determined that the best path toward providing our fans with more options is to handle many of the broadcast obligations in-house.”

While giving fans multiple avenues to watch games is beneficial to achieving the goal of expanding the team’s reach, there are some financial considerations that come into play.  The Rangers had been getting approximately $110 million in annual rights fees over their previous TV deal with Diamond Sports, although it’s believed they took a slight hair cut in 2024 amid Diamond's bankruptcy proceedings. While it’s unlikely the club would have received as much under a renegotiated contract, there is definitely some risk in going out on their own. For a team that sees itself as a contender and currently carries a payroll around $220 million, maximizing TV revenues is an obvious priority for the team's business and baseball operations departments.

In an interview with Sports Business Journal, Neil Leibman, a former club executive who will manage Rangers Sports Network, said “We know we can broadcast the games.” “Can we generate the revenue to offset what we would have made [elsewhere]? That’s up to our execution, and I think we’re in better hands managing our own risk.” Leibman didn’t disclose to SBJ how much TV revenue he believes the club will generate its first year, but he said his belief was that it could exceed the $90 million rights fee it received from Diamond Sports last season.

In an era where regional sports networks seem to be on the decline, the Rangers are embracing the creation of their own. It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out. If Rangers Sports Network succeeds, it could prompt other clubs to follow in the Rangers footsteps in the future. Regardless, you have to give the club credit for bucking the trend and taking a calculated risk in the changing media landscape.

Brendan Bell is a 2L at SMU Dedman School of Law. He can be followed on Twitter (X) @_bbell5