The Texas Rangers are leaving Diamond Sports Group and considering local media options for 2025

The never-ending saga surrounding the Rangers’ local TV rights has progressed a little further.

Officially, in 2025, they will no longer return to the parent company of Bally Sports Southwest, or whatever it becomes if it exists. Where they will land remains uncertain.

In a press release Tuesday afternoon, Major League Baseball announced that three additional clubs will be leaving Diamond Sports, which operated a number of regional sports networks prior to Ch.’s statement. 11 Insolvency and restructuring. MLB will handle production of Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins games in 2025.

This brings the total number of MLB-produced broadcasts to six individually branded local television stations. MLB had already produced games for San Diego, Arizona and Colorado.

“As the media landscape continues to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can watch their favorite teams, eliminating blackouts where we can and ultimately increasing the reach of our games,” said Noah Garden , MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media. “We are proud to bring Guardians, Brewers and Twins games to their passionate fan bases with the same high-quality production we demonstrated in Arizona, Colorado and San Diego.”

According to the press release, the Rangers “have decided that they will no longer work with Diamond Sports Group and are considering their local media options for the 2025 season.”

As far as the Rangers are concerned, Tuesday’s developments are not a particularly significant or surprising turn of events. Two Rangers officials with knowledge of the club’s negotiations had confirmed this The Dallas Morning News The club had already pursued the idea of ​​setting up its own regional sports network more than two weeks ago. Owning your own RSN would potentially be more lucrative than handing production over to MLB.

The announcement doesn’t rule out the possibility that the Rangers will eventually come across an MLB-produced product, but the release made it clear that the Rangers are pursuing their own opportunities.

However, creating an RSN and negotiating carriage agreements is a complex matter and Rangers have not reached final agreements on anything. The hope would be to include both linear (cable/satellite) and direct-to-consumer (streaming) options for fans in a new RSN. Additionally, the Rangers could potentially negotiate a deal with local television stations in their area for a limited package of over-the-air broadcasts.

Other than acknowledging the statement in the MLB release, Rangers officials declined to comment on the situation Tuesday.

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