Atlanta Braves TV Viewing Still in Flux as Chaos Ensues into New Year

As Main Street Sports Group continues to miss payments to multiple teams, how the Atlanta Braves will be available on TV in 2026 remains in flux

The never-ending TV dilemma could potentially reach its conclusion | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Braves are among the good chunk of teams in Major League Baseball who could see their TV money take a massive hit. Main Street Sports Group, the company that owns the FanDuel Sports Network channels, is aiming to renegotiate what it pays 29 sports teams, including nine MLB teams, according to The Athletic. 

Among those nine are the Braves. According to the report, Main Street lost around $200 million in  2025. They recently missed a payment to the St. Louis Cardinals, and that team is now deciding whether to move on from their TV partner. According to Awful Announcing, the Cardinals are expected to opt out along with other teams. The Braves are reportedly considering opting out as well. 

Along with the Cardinals, they reportedly missed payments to their 13 NBA teams. TV viewership for next season is in a precarious spot. Fans don’t know for sure if they’ll be able to tune into the usual place to watch their teams play this year.  

The Braves, along with other MLB teams, declined to comment when The Athletic reached out earlier this week. 

This uncertainty in income has made teams hesitant to spend in some cases. Specific teams that are concerned about their income outlook are unclear. For what it’s worth, the Braves have been spending this offseason, and there has been an indication that they aren’t done. 

It’s possible that this hasn’t impacted them as much as other teams. However, if certain moves aren’t made, such as adding rotation depth, it could be an indication that this uncertainty is impacting their decisions. 

There is no guarantee that Main Street makes it out of this crisis still in business. The goal of Diamond Sports Group reorganizing into Main Street was to help it set itself up to be a stronger company when coming out of bankruptcy. That clearly hasn’t been the case. 

There was an effort by the company to sell a majority stake to DAZN, a British broadcasting company that is better known abroad for its sports streaming. According to Awful Announcing, that deal is considered dead. Fubo has since entered the mix. How this all plays out will certainly determine TV revenue for teams this upcoming season. 

Even with this last-ditch effort from Fubo to make a deal, the days of these regional sports networks are considered numbered. MLB has been known to want to take over its teams' broadcasting rights. They already have a handful of teams airing their games on MLB.tv without any local blackouts. Along with this option, teams have been adding telecasts to local channels to make access easier for fans.  

For example, last year saw significant changes to how Braves fans can watch the team’s games, even when still under contract with Main Street. Select spring training and regular-season games became available on local Gray Media channels across the Southeastern United States. 

In Atlanta, these games are on Peachtree TV, which is currently the local CW channel and formerly the notable TBS station. Through this option, you can get these games strictly with an antenna if you don’t have cable or satellite. 

Subscribing to watch the FanDuel broadcast on Amazon Prime also became an option. Fans can also subscribe directly on the FanDuel TV app. 

This is an ongoing issue, and it can be presumed that updates will come about over the coming weeks. Spring Training is less than two months away. This debacle has no choice but to sort itself out in a hurry.