What the MLB Broadcast Deals Mean for the Angels and Fans

Nine teams opted out of their deals with Main Street Sports over the off season. The Angels were one of those teams and the loss of local TV revenue is likely the main reason the team has significantly cut payroll this year. After signing a handful of players to one year deal, the Angels payroll is still about $75 million less than a year ago at this time.

Today, six of the nine teams reached agreements with Major League Baseball to broadcast their games. The Cardinals, Reds, and Brewers might battle for the NL Central title but will all have their games broadcast through MLB. Joining them are the Royals, Marlins, and Rays.

This leaves the Angels, Tigers, and Braves still searching for broadcast deals for 2026. There are not a lot of details yet out, but in looking at what we know there are several likely impacts for the Angels and their fans.

The Angels are likely working on a more traditional TV deal.

It likely is not a coincidence that the three remaining teams play in the largest TV markets. The Angels are a clear second fiddle to the Dodgers in the Los Angels area but the market is clearly large enough for two teams. The fact the Angels did not join the other six teams at this time is a clear indication they did not feel the need to do so at this time.

With pitchers and catchers reporting next week, the team must feel a sense of urgency to get a deal done. Not only do they want to deliver games to fans, they'd also presumably like to add talent to the Major League roster so they can provide a more watchable product for thier new partner.

Those six teams have a jump on signing the reamaining talent.

Cincinatti signed free agent slugger Eugenio Suarez to a one year, $15 million contract yesterday. About as surprising as Suarez signing such a short term deal was the fact Cincinatti was spending money without a TV deal. Speculation swirled that they had something brewing on the broadcast front and that was confirmed today.

There is plenty of talent still on the free agent shelves and now six teams have a little more money to go spend on it. How much money is not confirmed, but as the old phrase goes something is better than nothing.

Revenue is likely going to decrease, but the Angels should still have an advantage.

Let's face it, if the Angels broadcasts were making Main Street Sports money that contract would still be in place. The Angels have already renegotiated their TV deal once this decade and taken a cut. In this current market, cord cutting has killed the regional sports network and changed the economic foundation of the game.

Last year MLB broadcast games for the Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Twins and Guardians. No hard numbers for revenue have been released but industry insiders say they took in about half of what their guaranteed TV contracts paid out. That's a huge ht.

If the Angels do in fact work out a more traditional broadcast arrangement, the Angels will likely see their revenue drop as well. But if that drop is less than 50%, that still gives them a financial advantage over most small market teams.

For the fans, this could be really good.

A major problem for fans is MLB's blackout policy. Even when buying the MLB package, most fans have games blacked out every night. MLB adding six franchises to the five they already controlled means over a third of the league is now distributed through one broadcasters.

The day when fans across the country can access any game they want is growing closer. At the very least, fans in the Midwest can expect to be able to access most of the teams in their time zone without any restrictions starting this season. Add them to the fanbases in San Diego and Arizona and a huge swath of fans can now access any game they wish.

Long term MLB would love to nationalize the broadcasts of games to ensure that fans can access as many games as they would like. The regional sports networks are the biggest obstacle to this goal, but are falling by the wayside every day.