RSN-Bereft Colorado Rockies Look to Follow Padres and Diamondbacks Local TV Model, MLB to Distribute Channel Via DirecTV, Comcast, Charter, Fubo ... and DTC

Daniel Frankel
·2 min read
Colorado Rockies channel.
Colorado Rockies channel.

The Colorado Rockies are about to start the 2024 Major League Baseball season without a regional sports network, and they're looking at a local TV model that's very similar to the one established last season by fellow RSN dissident teams the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

With Warner Bros. Discovery shuttering RSN AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the Rockies have put their local TV fate into the hands of MLB, which in January set the team up with a direct-to-consumer streaming arrangement through MLB.tv.

But with the Rockies set to start their season Thursday at 4:05 p.m. ET against the Diamondbacks, MLB also announced last-minute pay TV distribution deals with Charter Communications, Comcast, DirecTV and Fubo.

Fans can visit rockies.com/watch to find out what channel their provider has placed the team on.

“We will continue to work with MLB, the NBA, NHL, and other top leagues and their local franchises so the most avid fans can get the games they want while other customers have more choice over the content they want to pay to have in their homes," said said Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV, which will carry non-nationally televised Rockies games on channel 683 starting Thursday evening.

Also read: Everything You Need To Know About the Bally Sports Bankruptcy

A rep for one leading pay TV service told Next TV on Wednesday that the Rockies and MLB have been in discussions about launching Rockies linear channels locally through operators, as the Padres and Diamondbacks did when bankrupt RSN operator cast them off its Bally Sports channels last summer.

Talks with these operators have obviously gone down to the wire. An announcement is expected Thursday, the rep told us.

Notably, the top pay TV operator in the Rockies' home city, Denver, is Comcast, which didn't carry SportsNet Rocky Mountain. DirecTV and Fubo did, however, carry the RSN, which shut down last fall.