Minnesota Timberwolves planning major changes to TV broadcasts?

Unfortunately… we do not know what that news is yet. But Wolves beat reporter Dane Moore tweeted on Tuesday, after news broke of the Twins’ plans, that he’s hearing “change will be coming in how Wolves games are distributed as well”. He did not offer up any further details, but did note that more information is likely to come out “soon”.

I’ve heard a change will be coming in how Wolves games are distributed as well.

I don’t know all the details, but would assume we get more information on that here soon. https://t.co/nA5A3hErTZ

— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) October 8, 2024

Does this mean the Minnesota Timberwolves are getting ready to ditch Bally Sports North, too? That would be a bit surprising, since the Wolves and Minnesota Wild both re-upped with Diamond Sports Group in recent months, for at least one more year with BSN.

One would assume that means any changes would have to wait until next season (2025-26). That may not be the case, however. Remember, DSG is in the middle of bankruptcy hearings that will decide the company’s future. At any point, the bankruptcy judge can essentially rip up any agreement he wants. We’ve already seen him do it.

Timberwolves are probably leaving BSN… but when?

Which leads us where we are now, after Dane’s tweet. Stuck in limbo. Because Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy is so fluid, this announcement could be anything. More than likely, the news will be related to leaving Bally Sports North, in one form or fashion.

That is just speculation, on my part. But why else would they leak this announcement, given the timing, if it had nothing to do with ditching BSN? If we assume this announcement does have something to do with the Minnesota Timberwolves leaving Bally, the next questions would surround, ‘when’?

Related: Timberwolves Insist KAT Trade Only Had a Little To Do With Money

To that, nothing would shock me. It could be effective immediately, just like it wouldn’t surprise me if they are waiting until next year. Whether now or in the future, every local team using BSN as their TV partner should be trying to rid itself of that disease of a company.

Of course, that also means waving goodbye to $10s of millions in revenue every year, too. As soon as we know more about this pending Minnesota Timberwolves + TV distribution announcement, you will too.

Minnesota Twins split with Bally Sports North (Diamond Sports Group)

MLB’s decision comes after the Diamond Sports Group, which operated Bally Sports North, no longer wanted to broadcast Twins games. As it goes through bankruptcy restructuring, Bally Sports (DSG) cut ties with the Twins, Cleveland Guardians and nine other MLB teams, following the end of the regular season.

Related: Top MLB free agents 2025

• Minnesota Twins TV reach 2024: 1.08 million homes

The Twins will join the Guardians, Rangers and Brewers, among teams whose games are produced and distributed by MLB. It adds to the growing number of teams that Major League Baseball has picked up broadcasting rights for. in the wake of Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy filing, from March 2023.

In the league’s official press release on MLB.com, Deputy Commission of Business and Media. Noah Garden. explained the decision. Here’s why Major League Baseball is taking on the responsibilities of broadcasting more teams’ games next season.

“With the media landscape continuing to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can see their favorite Clubs, removing blackouts where we can, and ultimately growing the reach of our games,. We are proud to bring Guardians, Brewers and Twins games to their passionate fan bases with the same high-quality production that we have demonstrated in Arizona, Colorado, and San Diego.”

MLB’s Deputy Commissioner of Business and Media, Noah Garden, on broadcasting Minnesota Twins games in 2025

Also Read: Latest Injury Update on Minnesota Vikings RB Aaron Jones

MLB did the same with the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies this past season after they cut ties with the Diamond Sports Group. Beginning in 2025, 11 MLB teams will have been dropped by DSG.

What to know about MLB broadcasting Twins games in 2025

MLB taking over the Twins’ broadcasting right immediately means there will be no blackout restrictions in 2025. Under DSG, Twins games were taken off Comcast before the 2024 season and local access to games was limited by home television territory blackout restrictions.

Starting in 2025: TwinsTV! 📺

Available via cable, satellite, and streaming in-market.

More info: https://t.co/R3oQK86J6F pic.twitter.com/QVnxUxLCFW

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) October 8, 2024

Also Read: Best baseball players ever

Moving forward, there will be no blackout restrictions on Twins games. Fans can watch them via streaming devices, satellite and cable, even if you are in-market. Cost for service is expected to be the same as 2024, for teams who ditched standard RSN and rolled-out MLB.TV. The cost per month was $19.99. Those who paid for the season, up front, forked over $99.99 one-time.

As MLB did last season with the Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies, Twins broadcasts will now include features like Ump Cam. They’ll also have live look-ins to the MLB Replay Operations Center. Wire Cam will be a thing, along with a new right-field camera. Fans can also expect more in-game interviews with players.

“In addition to expanding reach, Major League Baseball is utilizing resources to provide fans with an outstanding production that features new technology, improved picture quality and better access to the game and players.”

MLB Executive VP of Local Media Billy Chambers on the new features coming for local broadcasts

TV personalities expected to remain the same

Twins broadcasters Cory Provus and a combination of Justin Morneau, Glen Perkins and others are expected to return for the 2025 season, with MLB covering the costs of broadcasting games. The biggest difference is that they will no longer be wearing or touting anything Bally Sports.

Broadcasts will be produced through MLB.tv, with subscribers able to add the Twins’ package regardless of their location. It will be called Twins.TV — This is an immediate win for fans, as it will significantly increase the level of access to every Twins game in 2025. The team and league office will work out deals with TV providers ahead of next season.

• Minnesota Twins payroll 2024 (FanGraphs): $130 million

However, this will have further consequences for the Twins revenue as it did for the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies this past season. Minnesota slashed its payroll by nearly $30 million this past season due to lost revenue because DSG reduced what it paid the team.

But on Wednesday, attorneys of BSN’s parent company Diamond Sports Group made it clear to a bankruptcy judge that the company would prefer not to broadcast Twins games in 2025. In fact, they feel the same way about 10 of the other 11 teams they held TV rights for in 2024.

Diamond Sports Group (Bally) doesn’t want the Minnesota Twins anymore

According to Evan Drellich (The Athletic), the only team DSG wants to retain going forward is the Atlanta Braves. Diamond Sports’ lawyers seemed to offer some sort of safety net for the Minnesota Twins, along with any other previous partner desperate enough to take them up on what must be a pretty underwhelming package.

Evan notes that if the Twins or any of these other 10 teams want to re-up with DSG, they’ll have to renegotiate new deals. But The Athletic’s lead insider on this story makes it clear at the bottom of his two-tweet thread: “Diamond only wants Atlanta”.

Diamond carried 12 MLB teams in 2024. Three — Cleveland, Texas and Minnesota — were on 1-year deals.

But 9 other teams were under contract for 2025: Anaheim, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Tampa Bay.

Diamond only wants Atlanta.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) October 2, 2024

It’s yet to be seen what this means for the Twins, and their plans for 2024. The last we heard, it felt like a reunion with Bally Sports North was the most likely outcome. After this report, that no longer appears to be the case. Without knowing how much this new offer is for, it’s impossible to project where this leads.

Other options for Twins on TV next season

We know the Twins have had conversations with local TV stations, about a possible agreement. We haven’t seen the Twins play on a legacy TV network — like ABC (KSTP Ch. 5), CBS (WCCO Ch. 4) or FOX (KMSP Ch. 9) — or any of their sister channels since 2010, when they last had a split season contract with what is now My29 (WFTC).

Local TV hasn’t had exclusive rights to an entire Twins season since 1982, when they played an entire season on FOX9. The other very likely option is the Minnesota Twins and MLB launching their own channel, powered by MLB.TV.

You’d be able to stream directly through that service, but the channel would more than likely be a part of a separate package or channel with most TV providers. That option would be great for fans, but the Twins do not feel it would be good for their pocketbooks.

Related: Minnesota Twins Retaining Rocco Baldelli’s Right-Hand Man

No matter where Minnesota Twins games end up, it’s expected that Corey Provus, Audra Martin, Justin Morneau and the other from Bally Sports North will be re-hired by whoever picks up their games, should the organization decide to give up on Diamond Sports Group.

As of now, it doesn’t appear this latest day in court will affect what Diamond Sports Group has going with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Wild, who recently re-upped with Bally Sports North recently.

Bally Sports North re-ups as TV home to the Minnesota Wild and Minnesota Timberwolves

Instead of closing up shop, DSG has reportedly inked a new deal with the NBA and NHL. According to reports, it will make Bally Sports North the television home of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Wild, for at least one more season. Technically, the new contract still has to be approved by a judge.

Diamond Sports has reached deals with the NBA and NHL, deals it has said for a while it was closing in on. There's a hearing scheduled for Sept. 3 where, presumably, we'll get some sort of overall update on the bankruptcy process.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) August 23, 2024

Not every team under the Bally Sports umbrella will continue forward. The Wolves and Wild remain on BSN, but the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans will not. This new deal doesn’t guarantee Diamond Sports Group’s emergence from bankruptcy, but it certainly doesn’t hurt their chances.

Per this new agreement, even if DSG were to shut down operations in the middle of the winter sports season, Bally Sports network would be contractually obligated to finish out these newly inked contracts with the NBA and NHL. The deal does not have any effect on MLB or the Minnesota Twins.

In a way, Diamond’s new agreements with hockey and basketball throw the spotlight back on MLB, which does not have certainty as to whether Diamond will operate for its 2025 season. MLB declined comment Friday.

Evan Drellich – The Athletic

What does this mean for Minnesota sports fans?

Many local Minnesota sports fans were hoping this wouldn’t happen, especially after reports dropped a couple weeks ago that local television stations were waiting to make bids on TV rights, which may have allowed free over-the-air games for anyone with an antenna.

Related: MN Local TV Stations in Contact with Twins, Wild and Timberwolves

But, at least for now, that will not happen. The Twins will finish out their 2024 regular season on Bally Sports North. Then, in a couple of months, that’s where the Wolves and Wild games will be, as well. Remember, cord cutters can still subscribe to BSN on Fubo TV (7-day free trial).

Unlike with Twins games, fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Wild will also be able to purchase a stream-only package that will cover both teams this winter, through the Bally Sports app. No additional cable or streaming package will be necessary for those two teams.

On the call that year was legendary local hockey play-by-play artist, Bob Kurtz. His color commentator was Larry Osterman, a former longtime Detroit Tigers announcer. In 1983, Spectrum Sports came to the Twin Cities, on what is now the CW Channel (Ch. 23).

For the next 40+ years, local pro sports (other than the Minnesota Vikings) would be broadcast, at least part time, on a cable or satellite (and eventually streaming) channel, and no longer available over-the-air. The Minnesota Timberwolves had a part-time over-the-air TV schedule from inception (1989), through 2003-04.

WTF is “over-the-air” television?

For the kids, you can google “antenna TV” OR “analog TV” OR “rabbit ears TV”. No subscription needed. Get an antenna, and tune it properly. Boom, free television. And yes, it still exists and works today. Look them up on Amazon.

Anyway, back to present day, and the point of this article. The Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild, Minnesota Timberwolves, and other non-major local professional sports teams (Lynx, Loons, etc) are broadcast on Bally Sports North, which is part of a string of local “Bally Sports” regional networks across the country.

Related: Twins Back on Bally Sports; Blackout & Streaming Issues Remain Unfixed… for Now

Their parent company, Diamond Sports Group, is currently going through a very public bankruptcy. In the very near future, it is very possible a judge will decide that DSG’s regional sports TV model is not salvageable. If that happens, Bally Sports North will cease to exist. At that point, broadcast rights for the Twins, Wild and Timberwolves would be up for sale.

Local MN TV Stations are “ready to strike” if Minnesota Twins, Wild and Timberwolves broadcast rights come available

So, what are the other options? You guessed it, a move back to local, over-the-air TV. It’s transition that makes a lot of sense, for all three teams. Local insider Darren “Doogie” Wolfson (who works for KSTP – ABC-CH5) on the Mackey & Judd Show (SKOR North) this week. He reports that multiple local television stations are “ready to strike” if Diamond Sports goes out of business.

“Let’s just say, multiple TV outlets in town have had conversations with all three organizations (Timberwolves, Wild, Twins). If that judge, at some point, declares that Diamond Sports is no longer an entity, that Diamond Sports is no longer a thing, it is going to be a crazy two to three week stretch.

There are going to be a lot of meetings, a lot of phone calls, a lot of people here in town interested in carrying Wild and Wolves games, put it that way. Because, Twins, their season is almost over. We have clarity on what the Twins’ TV situation will look like for the rest of this season.

But, there’s still some open-endedness on, ‘what does the Wild TV situation look like?’; ‘what does the Wolves TV situation look like?’. So, I’m telling you, like we need to wait on on the judge, but let’s just say… there’s been a good amount of conversations. And multiple TV outlets in town are ready to strike, if that judge says, ‘hey Diamond Sports, you’re done, you’re no longer a thing’.”

Darren Wolfson – Mackey & Judd (SKOR North)

Other options for Bally Sports teams

There are many theories as to what each team would do, if TV broadcasting rights were put in their hands. For example, Major League Baseball is already distributing and selling TV rights in certain markets (San Diego, Arizona).

In those markets, fans also have a stream-only option for cord-cutters through MLB.TV. Problem solved, at least for the Twins, right? Not exactly. A lack of revenue and slow build of subscriptions in the San Diego and Arizona markets make a switch to that strategy extremely risky.

Related: MLB Pipeline Ranks the Minnesota Twins How High After Recent Update?!

That’s especially true for a revenue-conscious MLB teams, like the Twins. And we haven’t even touched on the Timberwolves and Wild’s situation, should Diamond Sports Group be forced to cease operation in the regional sports TV space.

As Doogie noted, those latter two teams would probably be the first affected (and fought over), if Diamond Sports shuts down. I’m not going to lie… it would be a lot of fun to have these local teams back on over-the-air TV.

DSG (Diamond Sports Group) does not know if it is going to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy successfully. There are too many variables in play still, they claim. Thus, in the hearing Wednesday, they asked for and received another indefinite extension on their requirement to submit a plausible plan to emerge from bankruptcy.

Diamond has now indefinitely pushed that date back, with [their attorney] saying multiple times the company is aware of a need to be hasty.

“If we conclude that we cannot reorganize the business, which is a possibility, we will similarly pivot quickly,” Hermann said. “That is not our focus today, but that is a possibility and that’s not lost on us.”

The Athletic

Comcast + DSG talks good news for Minnesota Twins fans…?

In other words, we still do not know if Bally Sports North will be a thing in this market, after the baseball season. Seems like a pretty unproductive legal session, right? Well maybe not. Today’s outcome (or lack-there-of) means the Twins will likely remain on BSN for the duration of the 2024 season.

But one of the attorneys of Diamond Sports Group did bring some good news with him into the courtroom today, claiming during the proceedings that DSG is nearing a new deal with Comcast, after their previous deal expired at the end of May and has yet to be renewed.

“We believe that we have made substantial progress on resolving our issues with Comcast, and we have the intention of fully documenting and executing an agreement with Comcast to broadcast our RSNs in the very near term.”

Diamond Sports Group attorney, Brian Hermann (via The Athletic)

What does this mean for Timberwolves, Wild?

Diamond Sports Group told the judge today that they are also in active discussions to re-up on deals with their NHL and NBA teams, which include the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Wild.

It’s important to remember, however, that DSG owns the streaming rights included in their contracts with DSG. With many of the MLB teams under their umbrella, including the Twins, that is not the case.

Related: Falvey Confirms Minnesota Twins’ Plans at Trade Deadline

So while a new contract between Comcast and Diamond Sports would fix streaming and viewing problems for residential Xfinity customers, it will not solve the larger issue for cord cutters who do not want to subscribe to cable, DirecTV or Fubo.

MLB Files Grievance Against Diamond Sports

Now dealing with a blackout of Bally Sports on Comcast, Major League Baseball is trying to step up the pressure on Diamond Sports Group. In a court filing on Tuesday, Major League Baseball argued, “This abrupt loss of carriage is profoundly harmful to MLB. Without incoming revenue from Comcast, Diamond faces substantially increased risk of shutting down altogether.”

This line of thinking is beyond sensible, with Diamond and Comcast arguing over dollars, the company dealing with bankruptcy proceedings now has an even greater challenge when it comes to revenue.

It isn’t always typical for the league to get involved with carriage disputes, but Major League Baseball is seeing this latest Diamond Sports + Compast battle impact more than one-third of their league, given the company’s behemoth’s reach as one of the country’s largest cable providers.

While Diamond Sports continues to work through bankruptcy court in an effort to continue operations beyond 2024, Major League Baseball has watched as the owner of Bally Sports now deals with blackout restrictions for 12 teams through Comcast’s cable service. As the side continue to have discussions, the two-week mark has come and gone with the product off the shelf.

Related: Bally Sports Releases Tone Deaf Statement on Contract Battle with Comcast

Court dates on May 22 and June 18 loom large in terms of objections and confirmation hearings, but Major League Baseball is beyond skeptical how the sides can continue to go forward like this.

Minnesota Twins Blackout From Diamond Sports Crushing

Diamond Sports contract with Comcast came to an end on April 30, meaning the Minnesota Twins last 12 games have not been televised by the mammoth cable provider. In that stretch Rocco Baldelli and his team have been among the best teams in baseball. The culmination of a 12-game winning streak was not widely distributed, and Minnesota’s six consecutive series wins hasn’t been shown either.

3️⃣ STRAIGHT DAYS FOR SLAMTANA! pic.twitter.com/U2AjBDnai8

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 12, 2024

Fans have been left searching for avenues to consume Major League Baseball’s product, and rather than Diamond Sports working with Comcast for a quicker resolution, there have been multiple advertisements taken out on social media to increase finger pointing. Of course the league is losing revenue, as are each of the individual teams, but discounting the dollars doesn’t overshadow just how bad fans have it thanks to the imposed blackout.

Related: New MLB + Roku Deal Gives Bally-less Twins Fans Some Free Games to Watch

The hope would be that Diamond Sports and Comcast can come to some sort of new agreement that changes the current situation for the time being, but with each side stuck in, it appears Major League Baseball will be left frustrated by their current state of affairs.

It's happening. Negotiations between Bally's and Comcast have led to this.

Twins will not be available on Bally's as of now. Cross fingers that the sides can work something out. pic.twitter.com/1bOVdtRULY

— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) May 1, 2024

This isn’t just happening locally, though. Every Bally Sports regional network across the United States shut down at midnight. Nashville Predators fans, for example, had their playoff game shut off at the end of the second period. Let’s just say that their are a lot of unhappy sports fans across the landscape today.

Who’s to blame: Diamond Sports Group (Bally) or Minnesota Twins?

Back to Minnesota, where a lot of Twins fans are arguing Wednesday over who deserves more blame for the Twins games, specifically, no longer being available. Of course, the local-nine aren’t involved in contract negotiations between Diamond Sports Group and Comcast.

But, they did have a chance to cut bait with Bally Sports this offseason. Instead of ditching Bally, though, and hosting their own games via MLB.TV or finding another provider, they went back to Bally Sports North for one more year. Why? Money.

Related: Minnesota Twins Back on Bally Sports; Blackout & Streaming Issues Remain Unfixed

It wasn’t the $60+ million that they received per year in their previous contract with Bally Sports. But it is believed to be around 80% of that. Where as, had they gone out on their own, they would not have been able to guarantee they get that revenue back. So, the Twins chose money over fan happiness. Yes, the Pohlads. Shocking, right?

What TV and streaming providers offer Bally Sports North?

Anyway, onto more productive conversations. Xfinity customers who lost access to the Minnesota Twins today have a couple of options if they still want to watch their team play games on TV: Fubo TV or DirecTV.

Fubo is what I subscribe to and I love it. You can try it out for seven days free HERE. Service is billed month-to-month and you can cancel at any time.

There are no other cable TV providers for Xfinity customers to switch to. That’s because only one cable provider is allowed in each area. If you have Xfinity, then Charter or COX (etc) won’t be available to you.

The only other options for Comcast Xfinity customers, outside of Fubo, is to get a satellite dish on their roof. If you’d prefer DirecTV, but want to avoid the satellite part, they do offer a stream-only option, as well.

Related: Will Carlos Santana Play 1st Base or DH for Minnesota Twins?

That’s bad news for cord-cutting fans in the local TV market, who were all but promised they’d finally have a direct-to-consumer viewing option to watch the Twins play in 2024. But they aren’t the only ones who are sure to be disappointed by these most recent developments.

When Minnesota Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey first went public with the organizations plans to cut payroll for the 2024 season, he pointed to the salary scale-back as a direct effect to all the uncertainty surrounding $65 million in revenue that was in jeopardy, after their TV deal with Bally Sports North (Diamond Sports Group) ended and wasn’t renewed, following the 2023 season.

So sure, it’s no surprise that the streaming generation of Twins fans are taking the weekend’s news hard. But this new deal is expected to cover up to 85% of the $65 million the Pohlads were so worried about losing, at least. That must mean the Twins are going to spend at least a large portion of the $25 to $30 million they cut out of the player payroll right?

New deal with Diamond Sports Group (Bally) won’t lead to more Minnesota Twins spending

Blake Snell anyone? Jordan Montgomery? Well… not so fast, says Darren Wolfson (KSTP, SKOR North). Joe Pohlad apparently gave a strict edict at the VERY beginning of the offseason that the Twins were planning to cut $25 million in player salaries, whether they figured the TV situation out or not.

Judd: ‘Do we think the stability of [the Twins knowing what they are going to get for TV money help ease self-imposed salary ceilings] or does it not help because [those were going to be cut no matter what]?’

Wolfson: “Yeah, the latter. I mean, my understanding is Joe Pohlad, it was an edict very very early in the offseason, like early November, even before the GM meetings. That, ‘hey payroll is going to be cut pretty significantly’.”

“It would be nice, right? I mean the idea is, after you win a playoff series for the first time in forever… like now’s the time to spend, you know, retain Sonny Gray or go get Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery right? I mean we’d love it right? But it just… it was never the cards.”

Bad look for Minnesota Twins organization trying to rebuild trust in fanbase

This is sad to hear, even if it’s unsurprising. Hopefully, the Pohlad ownership group surprises the baseball world and realizes that this is the wrong time to be cutting back player salaries. That they have a golden opportunity to assert their dominance in the AL Central, if they’d just be willing to spend what they did in 2023.

As things stand, this offseason the #MNTwins have lost (at MLB level): Sonny Gray, Jorge Polanco, Emilio Pagan, MAT, Donovan Solano

And brought in: Carlos Santana, Anthony DeSclafani, Justin Topa, Josh Staumont, Jay Jackson

Tough sell.

— Nick Nelson (@NickNelsonMN) February 5, 2024

Any other season, following one of the best in recent franchise history, we’d all be demanding the Twins spend more, in order to take advantage of an open window at a World Series run. Instead, they’ve successfully lowered expectations to the point where we’d all be excited just to find out they were keeping player payroll at the same level as last year

Related: Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Walker Jenkins Drawing Superstar Comparisons from MLB Scouts

But… it appears that’s even too much to ask. As of now, it appears the whole TV money excuse was exactly what many expected it to be from the beginning. Just an excuse… to be cheap.

Minnesota Twins + New Deal with Bally Sports North: What We Know

Unfortunately, it appears those frustrations may continue to exist in 2024, after details of a new one-year contract between the Twins and Bally Sports North were released late Friday morning. The new agreement still needs to be approved by a bankruptcy judge next week, but the expectation is that approval won’t be a problem.

In the finer details of the contract, as tweeted out here by MLB insider Evan Drellich (The Athletic), a clause appears to restrict both the Twins and Bally Sports North from selling or offering any direct to consumer streaming options during the 2024 season.

One note: Although they have retained their streaming rights, Guardians, Rangers, Twins are *not* in position to do something else with them *this* year. All three teams have a variant of the below highlighted clause, using the Twins as an example: pic.twitter.com/hxgON95i09

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 2, 2024

In other words, the Twins/MLB did NOT sell their streaming rights to Diamond Sports Group (parent company of Bally Sports), as part of this new one-year contract. So as of now, Bally Sports North does not have the authority to offer standalone live streams of Minnesota Twins games directly to a consumer.

This part of the contract is not surprising. Earlier in the week, when this deal was getting close to the finish line, it was reported that the Twins, along with the MLB, did not want to release streaming rights to Diamond Sports Group (Bally) as part of the rumored (at the time) new one-year deal.

Related: How to Stream Timberwolves and Wild Games with Bally Sports App Not Working

What was a bit surprising is the restrictions included for the Minnesota Twins and MLB. They cannot sell their direct-to-consumer streaming rights to a 3rd party for the 2024 season, nor can they stream games directly to fans themselves, without local blackout restrictions coming into play.

Meaning, as of now, nothing about Minnesota Twins broadcasts in 2024 will be different from what fans dealt with during the 2023 season, or in seasons prior. Unless Bally Sports North is offered as part of your…

• Catch-All Stream-Only package – Only option currently is Fubo (My Recommendation)
• Cable TV package – Spectrum, Xfinity, etc.
• DirecTV package (also offers stream-only option)

… you still can’t watch the Minnesota Twins this season, as things currently stand.

What's happening right now is a one-year band-aid that basically runs back the status quo, for a year, and keeps the teams getting paid. What happens for 2025 and beyond is the question https://t.co/L2rkmlQXl8

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 2, 2024

Any good news…?

There are some out there who are holding out hope that this is only the first step in a multi-step process that eventually lands Twins games on Amazon Prime this summer. Diamond Sports Group doesn’t own streaming rights for the Minnesota Twins, or nine other teams that they have TV broadcast rights for.

Related: Minnesota Twins Suddenly Eager to Spend in Free Agency and Falvey is Eyeing Up Outfielders

But for the five teams that they do own streaming rights for, those teams will move over to Amazon Prime as soon as this season. Optimists out there believe another round of negotiations between the MLB, Bally and Amazon will begin, regarding the remaining teams’ streaming future in 2024, after this process is wrapped up.

Remember, this initial contract had already missed multiple deadlines and was under a lot of pressure from the bankruptcy court to get done. Now that it is complete, some of the details they couldn’t agree on under the gun, could, in theory, be revisited.

Don’t lose hope on Twins streaming. I think what the court is doing is not assuming the Diamond-Amazon deal gets done until that’s approved. If that goes through, I’m guessing Twins are streamed by Amazon for a year. Remember, bankruptcy court doesn’t care about fans reaction.

— Judd Zulgad (@jzulgad) February 2, 2024