Cleveland Guardians TV rights to be owned by MLB in 2025; Channel info to be determined
This story was updated to add new information
DETROIT — The Guardians' TV rights will be owned by Major League Baseball in 2025.
MLB announced on Tuesday that they will be producing and distributing games for the Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins beginning with the 2025 season. The Guardians' contract with Diamond Sports Group (Bally Sports) expired at the end of the 2024 regular season, and the deal was not renewed.
The league says this will give fans more options to watch their favorite teams on TV or to stream digitally. Major League Baseball also plans to remove blackouts for local games for more clubs.
"We’re excited to work with Major League Baseball to produce and distribute games locally," said a Guardians team spokesperson. "This is great for our fans, as beginning in 2025, our games will now be more widely available. This will include streaming for the first time ever in our home television territory, essentially ending blackouts for our fans locally."
The arrangement reached between MLB and the three clubs will be similar to how games were produced and distributed for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres this season. Last year, MLB negotiated cable and satellite distribution agreements and made direct-to-consumer streaming options available at DBacks.TV, Padres.TV and Rockies.TV.
According to a league release, the Guardians' reach on its Regional Sports Network setup was around 1.45 million households. With MLB's direct-to-consumer streaming option, Guardians games can now reached up to 4.86 million households.
“With the media landscape continuing to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can see their favorite Clubs, removing blackouts where we can, and ultimately growing the reach of our games,” said Noah Garden, MLB deputy commissioner of business and media, in a statement. “We are proud to bring Guardians, Brewers and Twins games to their passionate fan bases with the same high-quality production that we have demonstrated in Arizona, Colorado, and San Diego.”
The expectation is that Guardians' TV revenue will see a decrease compared to their previous deal with Bally Sports.
How can I watch Guardians games in 2025? What channel?
More information on exactly where and how fans can watch games will be announced closer to the beginning of the 2025 season. What this means for more traditional cable viewers: the Guardians will need to negotiate with cable providers to broadcast games through MLB between now and Opening Day 2025.
Separate from those agreements, this deal will give fans more digital streaming options without local blackouts.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians TV rights owned by MLB in 2025, channel unknown
