Jump to content

Texas Rangers 2024-2025 offseason


ztejas

Recommended Posts

52 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

I’ll just do what I always do, and PM Spy for a link to the pirate site he’s posted the link to many times before. Then I’ll cast it to my tv and watch.

I'm not paying for that bullshit. Guessing I'll become well-versed in pirate links. 

We'll survive. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 OTA games according to Evan Grant on CW33 in Dallas and other channels in Texas. He said in a reply that YouTube TV could be a deal they're working on but it's just not part of the announced deal that's already been hammered out.

 

Texas Rangers announce TV deals with major local cable carriers. Here’s what we know

The team announced agreements with major linear cable providers DirecTV, AT&T UVerse and others on Tuesday.

By Evan Grant

Rangers beat writer/insider

Jan. 28, 2025

|

Updated 3:58 p.m. CST

|

4 min. read

Baseballs rest on the warning track as Texas Rangers players take live batting practice during the first full squad spring training workout at the team's training facility on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, in Surprise, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

ARLINGTON — Against a rapidly changing current in the TV revenue stream, Texas Rangers ownership set out a year ago to navigate the narrowest of channels, one that allowed them to widen their audience, without substantially emptying their pockets.

In the creation of Rangers Sports Network and, more importantly, a handful of multiplatform broadcasting deals the organization announced Tuesday, the Rangers believe they’ve created a win-win solution. All of which they hope leads to long-term winning on the field.

Having already announced a stand-alone direct-to-consumer streaming option with the parent company of Victory+, the Rangers announced deals with major linear (traditional) cable providers DirecTV satellite, satellite-free streaming, UVerse and Spectrum. The Rangers are still finalizing details with other providers.

They are also planning a 15-game over-the-air package, something they haven’t had since 2014, that could extend to more than 30 of the designated market areas in the club’s five-state territory, which includes all of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and part of New Mexico. Nextstar Media and Gray Media, which control a number of stations in the territory, will be the broadcast partners. In the Dallas-Fort Worth market, the over-the-air package will air on CW33.

Rangers

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.

SIGN UP

Or with:

Google

Facebook

By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

The network and the business model for a team that has decided to enter the broadcasting market place at a particularly volatile moment remains a work in progress. The Rangers, though, believe they can at least realize the revenue from TV they saw in 2024, widen their audience and position themselves for future revenue growth. They will take all responsibility for production of local broadcasts in-house.

“I’m confident we have an avenue to grow that we didn’t have any other way,” Rangers majority owner Ray Davis told The Dallas Morning News about the club’s decision to enter the broadcasting market place at a volatile moment. “I’m confident we’re not going backward.

Advertisement

“It’s going to bring us more fans. It’s going to take time to grow the advertising, grow the subscriber base and win about three more World Series. Maybe I should have said four. But, now, it all comes down to execution. It’s in our hands. It’s not in somebody else’s courtroom or boardroom that is making decisions bankruptcy.”

The over-the-air component, something the Rangers haven’t had since 2014, will likely feature mostly Friday night home games. The streaming element, which was announced Jan. 15, will be available throughout the territory for a $100 season subscription through Victory+.

Related:

It should give nearly 100% of the homes in the Rangers’ broadcast territory access to some element of local broadcasts. Neil Leibman, Chairman of the Rangers Entertainment and Media Company, said that in 2024 approximately 2 million of the 16.5 million homes in the five-state territory were able to watch the Rangers because of limited carriage of what was then branded as Bally’s Sports Southwest regional sports network and its branded streaming app.

Advertisement

For ownership: The Rangers expect the three tiers of broadcast to create as much — if not more — revenue as they saw from a renegotiated deal with the parent company of Bally’s. The original contract the Rangers signed with FOX, which owned the RSN system in 2010, called for more than $110 million per year in TV revenue. After Diamond Sports Group filed for bankruptcy in 2023, the Rangers took a discount of more than $10 million in 2024 rights.

Had the Rangers returned to Diamond, now branded under FanDuel, or allowed MLB to take over production, the TV revenues would have shrunk more significantly. That would have created problems in supporting a payroll that is expected to rank among the top 10 in MLB for the third straight season.

The Rangers’ current payroll, including player benefits, nears the $241 million Competitive Balance Tax (CBT). Potential makeable incentive bonuses could push it higher, which would force the Rangers, as a third-time offender, to pay a 50% tax on the overage. The biggest deals on the roster, for Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, which will account for $94 million in salaries in 2025 were all negotiated before Diamond filed for bankruptcy.

“How do you sign a player long term if you don’t have revenue certainty?” Davis said. “We’ve been living in three years of not knowing what our rights fees were going to be for the next X number of years. I think we had a surety that we could televise through MLB TV, but at a significant economic cost. Now, we can control our own destiny. We know pretty much what our revenue side is going to be.”

The Rangers believed they had surety when they signed their deal with FOX a decade ago, but cord-cutting and the sale to Sinclair Broadcasting, which spun off Diamond Sports, led to unserviceable debt for the broadcaster. That ultimately triggered the bankruptcy filing.

The difference this time around: The Rangers believe the major cable companies are more financially stable and the presence of Victory+ allows for growth in the streaming market.

“When linear was all the rage and we signed the [FOX] deal, it was the greatest thing in the world, because [the contract] went up every year and you had guaranteed revenue with FOX and its deep pockets,” Davis said. “It was great. We all got drunk on that revenue until it wasn’t there.”

Advertisement

Davis said the club still intends to stay below the CBT threshold in 2025 to allow for “resetting” the penalties. If the Rangers do not exceed the threshold in 2025, their penalty would drop to 20% tax on the first $20 million above the threshold, which increases to $244 million in 2026.

Edited by mdmost
  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, brojangles2 said:

If anyone somehow finds out what channel it will be on Spectrum, and what plan it requires, let me know. 

I got this in my inbox this morning:

https://www.mlb.com/rangers/schedule/programming?partnerId=it-20250128-12433331-tex-1-A&utm_id=it-20250128-12433331-tex-1-A

It says Spectrum will be 448. DirecTV 677. U-Verse (that still exists?) 1752. DirecTV looks like the FSN/Bally's auxiliary channel. It also says Victory+ will allow users to authenticate their cable and satellite accounts to access the streaming content. 

First OTA game on CW33 will be the Friday, March 28th game against Boston. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will be anxiously awaiting this to go live, so that I can know my own verdict. My Spectrum goes from 444-460 at the moment, does not even show a greyed out 448. I suspect that is a product of launch not yet occurring. Fingers crossed. pretty good news about Victory using cable creds to get access as well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, brojangles2 said:

Will be anxiously awaiting this to go live, so that I can know my own verdict. My Spectrum goes from 444-460 at the moment, does not even show a greyed out 448. I suspect that is a product of launch not yet occurring. Fingers crossed. pretty good news about Victory using cable creds to get access as well. 

Mine is the same.  That's probably the standard and they'll auto-add 448 later.  Hopefully

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...