Sorry, Texas Rangers fans, there is 0 great news update about their TV future (yet)

For those of you hoping/expecting/praying that a 2023 World Series title would change the status of your ability to watch Texas Rangers’ games on your television here in 2024, not even the almighty can impact America’s bankruptcy court.

The confusing and frustrating mess that is the Rangers television broadcast package remains in the same state of disarray as it has for the past several years. The “plan” in place that existed in 2023 for the Rangers on television will be the same in 2024.

The Texas Rangers open their 2024 season on Thursday against the Chicago Cubs, on ESPN. After that, and the vast majority of their games, think 153 of them, and you’re back in back in Bally hell.

For 2024, Rangers fans who want to watch the games on their TV will need Bally Sports Southwest, which in our area is primarily available via Charter, Comcast or DirecTV. Telecasts are also available on the streaming app Fubo, BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app.

This is now about 2025 and beyond. Whatever the future of the Texas Rangers on television is will have a lasting impact on what the product looks like on the field. Linear TV is not going away any time soon, but a direct-to-consumer model is coming down the road, and it will change baseball’s finances.

On this subject, no one really knows anything specific. Executives in both television and sports franchises will often brainstorm on what is coming, and it’s usually one of five scenarios; at this point, however, they’re all guessing.

The likely future scenario will be a combination of old-fashioned cable TV, and some a la carte version via a streaming app. MLB, its teams, and the networks are all trying to figure out the best way to monetize the precious commodity that is live programming, but as yet there is no definitive plan, or answer, for big league baseball.

“I wish we knew but we don’t know,” Rangers executive vice president Rob Matwick said of the future of the Rangers on TV.

Between Matwick and team vice president John Blake, the two have spent a combined 81 years in professional sports; both said Monday that they have ever seen anything like the continued state of local television broadcast rights that has dogged so many franchises in MLB, the NHL and NBA for the past several years.

The Rangers are like nearly all of the franchises in the MLB, NBA and NHL that sold their local television broadcast rights to media partners for hundreds of millions of dollars. What the television provider does with the broadcasts is up to the specific network, within reason.

Broadcast rights comprise an enormous part of a team’s projected revenue every season, and usually dictate what a franchise can spend on players. The Rangers local broadcast rights with Bally Sports Southwest is one of the primary reasons it was able to spend about $900 million on guaranteed free agent contracts for Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Jon Gray, Jacob deGrom, etc.

If that revenue stream drops, so will a team’s ability to spray money at top players.

This potential drop in revenue is why so many teams, players and agents nervously move forward into the streaming world where the options are plentiful, and the days of charging a premium for content may be coming to an end. Maybe. No one knows.

So many teams are still stuck here because the streaming world and cable world don’t get along. It’s confusing. It’s exhausting. It alienates fans.

This problem continues after Bally’s parent company, Diamond Sports Group, which is a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Broadcast group, over played its hand. DSG took on too much debt, and in March of 2023 filed for bankruptcy.

A judge ordered DSG to pay the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Rangers 50 percent of what they were owed in media right’s fees. Other stopgap measures were taken for other franchises as this all moved forward.

MLB had no choice but to step in and take over the local broadcast rights for some of its teams, namely the Diamondbacks.

Teams all over North America were hopeful that when this filing was handled, they would be free to negotiate different deals. This is a problem that has frustrated MLB commissioner Rob Manfred because there is so little the league can do until these contracts expire.

Fans, consumers, networks, and teams all want some definitive answer so everyone knows where they need to go to watch the bleepin’ game. The answers are all over the map.

In January, Amazon joined the picture by becoming a minority partner, and will host its streaming content on Prime. According to people familiar with the discussions, Amazon’s involvement came from nowhere.

Finally, in February, a bankruptcy judged approved for more financing for DSG, which will allow all pre-existing plans to continue for 2024. It bought time for ASG, but this was not the outcome teams expected.

None of this is a solution. It’s a used band aid over a dripping faucet.

The future of the Texas Rangers on television is not what it will be here in 2024, and until that day we’re all stuck in Bally hell.