Phillies games could soon be available on Peacock
Fans could soon have a new way of streaming Phillies games. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported a move by NBCUniversal that would make the company’s regional sports networks, or RSNs, available to stream on Peacock. The move could take place as soon as 2025.
This potential move would be a new direct-to-consumer way for fans to watch Phillies games. Fans must be subscribed to Peacock to watch the games and be in the local Philadelphia market.
NBC is still deciding on how to roll out this new feature. It’s possible the company packages their RSNs — NBC Sports Philadelphia being one of them — with Peacock. There’s also an option on the table to make RSNs available on Peacock for an extra add-on fee.
This move comes at an interesting time in local sports broadcasting. Numerous teams have had issues with their local TV rights deals over the past couple of years. With the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, the owner of Bally Sports Networks, multiple big-league teams are struggling to find ways to televise games in their respective markets. RSNs are becoming a thing of the past as more and more people ditch cable altogether.
Earlier this month, it was announced that three teams — the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers — will have their local broadcasts taken over by Major League Baseball beginning in 2025. MLB will now distribute the local broadcasts of six teams. The league was already handling the broadcasts, and offering direct-to-consumer packages, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres.
The slow death of RSNs is impacting the TV revenue for certain franchises. Owners cited the uncertainty of such revenues as a reason for the slow 2023-2024 offseason. They will likely say the same this offseason, too.
The failure of RSNs and uncertainty surrounding the future of TV revenue is something the Phillies won’t have to deal with for a while. In January 2014, the franchise signed a 25-year deal with NBCUniversal for a reported total north of $2.5 billion for their local TV rights.
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This was also reported at the end of 2022 saying that it could happen in 2023 and then execs said no. I hope it's true this time around. The only reason I subscribe to a TV streaming service is so I can watch Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers (and football during the fall). This would be amazing news.
How about, like football, baseball games come back on regular network channels, and not streaming channels some of cannot afford??