The Mariners are planning to shutter Root Sports at the end of 2025, with Major League Baseball to take over the club’s broadcasts in 2026. Details of the club announcement were relayed by Adam Jude and Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.
“We continue to focus on finding new ways to bring our games in 2026 and beyond to our fans and we’ve determined joining with Major League Baseball is the best path,” reads a team statement, relayed by Divish. “Beginning in 2026 and moving forward, Major League Baseball will provide opportunities to bring new features and benefits to viewers of Mariners baseball. We are incredibly grateful for the dedication and excellence demonstrated by the Root Sports staff over the (nearly) four decades they have televised our games.” Jude relays that dozens of Root employees have been informed that they will be laid off on November 3rd but the broadcast team is expected to remain largely the same.
Regional sports networks (RSNs) have become an increasingly important part of baseball discussions in recent years. For a time, RSN deals were a reliable source of millions of dollars for teams. But cord cutting has led to a collapse of the RSN model, though not for all teams. Broadly speaking, the bigger teams like the Yankees and Dodgers are still in fine shape. Most large market clubs own their RSNs, in whole or in part, and still do quite well.
The Mariners tried to go down this road. In the 2023-2024 offseason, they took 100% control of Root Sports. They had previously owned 71% of the company but assumed the remaining 29% from Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel also carried the broadcasts of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. They also carried the NBA’s Utah Jazz in some markets and some college basketball games involving schools in the Pacific Northwest.
Two years later, it seems the M’s have decided to go under the MLB umbrella. They won’t be the first. MLB took over the broadcasts of the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies in 2024 as those clubs saw their RSN deals collapse. The Twins and Guardians joined that list in 2025.
With those arrangements, fans who watched on traditional television setups were largely unaffected. The games are still on television with the personnel mostly unchanged. The setup also opened the possibility for fans to pay for a blackout-free streaming package, ordered directly from MLB.
For the club, it’s generally agreed that these arrangements are less lucrative than the previous RSN contracts. For the Mariners, they may be sacrificing some gross revenue but they are saving lots of money by getting rid of the costs of operating Root. It’s difficult to get a read on the full financial picture from the outside but the Mariners presumably feel this is a better arrangement for them. That may impact the club’s player payroll this winter, though further reporting should shed more light on that over time.
It was reported last month that ESPN had struck a deal with MLB, acquiring various elements for 2026 and beyond, including the in-market rights of the five clubs currently handled by MLB. It’s unclear how that will change things going forward. ESPN is launching a streaming service, so fans in those markets may have to deal with that company instead of MLB. With the MLB now taking on Seattle’s rights, it’s unclear if MLB will pivot and include them in that ESPN deal.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is hoping to acquire the rights to all 30 clubs by the end of the 2028 season. MLB’s various national deals with companies like Fox and Turner all expire after that season. The same is true of other pacts with companies like Netflix and NBC/Peacock. Going into 2029, it’s theoretically possible that Manfred could market almost all MLB broadcast rights in one mega package, or split them up into smaller packages to be sold to multiple companies. Whether he can pull that off remains to be seen but this news pries loose one more club.
Photo courtesy of John Froschauer, Imagn Images
More for ESPN to cannabalize.
They will certainly try or if sales lag, add MLB to their $29.99 monthly app. If they get a winter sport like hockey, there might be an interest. That said, I don’t see how MLB satisfies the large market clubs whose overall value in part is due to their regional networks (i.e., YES, SNY, NESN, etc.).
I will pay for MLB.tv just as I have the previous 4 years… I don’t care if ESPN is $1.99 for the year, ESPN won’t get a single cent from me. If a game is only on ESPN, I will pirate it, I haven’t watched actual ESPN or the App in 12 years and it’s wonderful.
I won’t pay an extra $25 for “Root Sports” to watch the Mariner’s games.
This regional format just isn’t going to work going forward.
Except for the Yankees and Red Sox and Dodgers and to a lesser extent the Phils and a few others. The have/havenot nature of the sport will get even more intense. That’s a big part of why the smaller market teams are rebelling this CBA cycle.
Ugh
I didn’t not mind paying $20 a month to watch root, I hope the new service isn’t more expensive and though I’m guessing it will be much more.
I could be wrong, but similar teams that have mad MLB take them over broadcasts have similar rates with no local blackouts on MLB.tv. I could be wrong — my team’s not one of them.
Padres.tv is 19.99/mo for anyone in the Padres regional coverage area and there no blackouts unless a game is on Apple or another nationally televised broadcast.
NESN I believe charges $29.99. I doubt they get many subscribers that way. If you’re willing to pay that amount, why not just get the lowest tier cable that includes it? Going ala carte originally was meant to save money but how many are actually saving today?
The Padres are free if you have cox or direct tv.
Mariners saw the financials and realized teams like the Padres and Diamondbacks were pocketing more of the revenue from TV than with the RSN’s.
Doubt it and there’s zero reason to think that’s true. Both those teams did far, far better on their old RSN’s. Why they’re both now cutting salary where they can.
Well, there goes the money to resign Naylor long term. No money for extensions for our starting pitchers. Looks like the Mariners will be tearing it down this winter. Probably trade all their good players for prospects we won’t see for five years. Will be worse than the Pirates. Fun while it lasted. Goodbye cruel precious world.
Maybe MLB will bless us with a salary cap/floor before 2027 season.
Salary cap is not going to happen!
The luxury tax is the cap if your favorite team isn’t in LA/NY.
It wouldn’t be MLB, it would be the players association. MLBPA has long rejected a salary cap. It’s a non starter for them so IF it was to ever happen (likely will not) it would be the players association moving from that long held position.
There could always be a true cap and floor but such requires MLB to fully open their books so a percentage of revenue agreement could be reached. That’s the real reason why the MLBPA is so against it. It works in other sports because there is a “partnership” that is not in MLB. Reminds me of the Fisher Investments commercial (“the better you do, the better we do”).
Ok Eeore. Why assume the worst without the financials to back up your claims? Who doesn’t love negativity. Unreal.
Just the opposite. The Padres lost their RSN and are pocketing more from their broadcasts than when the RSN controlled the broadcasts.
Absolutely false. Could not even conceptually be true. The math doesn’t math, honestly not even close.
Hope you don’t mind, but I am going to go with what the CEO of the team said and not your opinion. I am just guessing here, but its high probability guess, that he gets to look at the team’s books and knows if they lost or gained revenue.
The fact that the Padres went from a revenue sharing receiver in 2023 to a revenue sharing payer in 2024 per Manfred after losing their RSN in May 2023 is also a good indicator when looking from the outside as well.
The Padres broadcasts are seen on every outlet they were available on before DSG went belly up and increased the amount of TV households in their market by over 1.1 million by adding 470k TV households in Hawaii plus TV households in other areas of southern California within their MLB allotted market that were not served by DSG. More available eyeballs and no RSN to take part of that revenue now. Then they added Padres.TV streaming to their revenue stream.
You are certainly entitled to have your opinion, no matter how wrong your math is. As for me, I will go with the knowledge of the CEO of the team.
Living up to you user name I see
Nothing is definitive. We don’t know how this miay affect payroll. I will say that winning the World Series certainly wouldn’t hurt the chances of some extensions.
Man I predicted that we would have another excuse to limit payroll so that we let geno and naylor leave in free agency
This is our best shot at winning a World Series because we have no idea what 2026 will look like
Geno should not be re-signed but this wouldn’t prevent it
You are right, no team should want to bring back a 3.7 WAR player. Why would they want an All-Star level 3B?
I wouldn’t mind getting Naylor back. Geno and Polanco will likely be out of the range of what the M’s want to spend.
Polanco is as good as gone. Someone is going to pony up for him and overpay. He’s had a great year.
Geno and Polanco will likely land one or two-year deals. Naylor’s the one most likely to get a 4-5 year deal and possibly with a higher AAV.
There are many more important problems ahead of this one and mlb already does things like youth sports groups
It leaves me wondering how much Manfred really did for the game if the main revenue source dries up because MLB managed to negotiate a bunch of unsustainable, unprofitable broadcasting contracts. The MLB tv product is inexpensive given how many games there are, but the UX is miles behind the NFL and the blackout policies seem to come from the Middle Ages. Might be time to bring it into the current century.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this. in defense of Manfred, that is what he’s trying to do. the big market teams are going to be the biggest hurdle, but packaging the whole league together is what will take out the blackouts. Its the best thing for the sport long term, the NFL style. But idk if he can do it without the Yankees and Dodgers.
Many things the NFL does would work for mlb, but games airing on CBS and FOX and NBC would not work at all
Baseball has 162 games compared to the 17 the NFL has
Imagine wanting to watch Yankees-Red Sox on a Saturday or Sunday but all of the channels are filled up with college or pro football so you have to watch the pirates and nationals face off on mlb network
Those free channels airing one game per week would be neat. Fox already has Saturday night baseball, why not have NBC or CBS air a Friday night game?
Red Sox — who own their RSN and have all six New England states to themselves — will be as stubborn as the Yankees and Dodgers on retaining their TV independence.
80% of NESN but I fully agree with the point. Part of the club’s overall value is in the regional networks they’ve built. YES is supposedly the most valuable but I can’t believe NESN and others are far behind. NESN has the Bruins and YES has the Nets but their value (especially YES) is baseball.
You are right, Red Sox and Phillies for sure are in that bucket too, but they dont make money on the order of NY and LA. But they are more than sufficient to fund a top league payroll. The RSN model is dying for all but those top teams with enough people in the area to fuel it. Idk if they will survive long enough to either outlast this newest change in viewing habits or adapt to them, but most of the others cant. The one thing i think would be the absolute best thing for baseball as a whole is to do what the NFL does and share their TV money evenly. So there are no inherently rich or poor teams. Its better for the sport. But will never happen as the top dogs will not want to give up their golden gooses.
The revenue source has not dried up it has shifted from legacy OTA broadcasts to cable to satellite to streaming over the years.
Change is inevitable. A drop in revenue because of that change is not. The Padres are not losing money just because their RSN went belly up. The money is now coming directly to them instead of a middleman taking a cut.
Curious what the plan is to acquire the local broadcast rights for the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox and maybe a few others.
I don’t think those teams play along. Can probably also count the Mets, Cubs, Blue Jays, Phillies, and maybe the Astros, Rangers, and Braves in that group. If there is a big enough fight over it, maybe those teams break away and form their own league.
Would just need ten teams. Each play the other 18 times and top four teams make the postseason.
Mets no longer own SNY. The Wilpons held onto it when they sold the club to Steve Cohen.
The Wilpons and Katz retained a 51% share in SNY. There are multiple other shareholders including Cohen and the Wilpons aand Katz re exploring a sale of their shares to Cohen.
As part of the sale of the team to Cohen, SNY agreed to continue to broadcast the Mets through 2035 at roughly double the amount the Mets were paid in 2019. Not sure exactly what that amount is, but most believe it to be between $150 million and $165 million
If 26 teams vote to centralize broadcasts, those 3 or 4 teams with their own RSN’s will be forced to play along.
If those 4 teams leave MLB, they lose all the advantages of being in MLB and MLB places another franchise in that city. All the players are bound by the CBA to play for only MLB or associated teams. The Yankees will lose all the players that make them the Yankees if they do that and would have to start with players that are not part of the union.
The Yankees giving up YES is at least ideologically simple, if costly. But Rogers owns the Blue Jays. Going to be pretty hard to force the cable company that owns the team to give up their rights to the broadcasts that were the whole reason they bought the team. I guess MLB could try to force a sale.
Good. Seattle Sports is the worst. Nothing like listening to high school football when the Mariners are in a pennant race.
I love your enthusiasm but it all feels so forced. Let stuff grow naturally.
Successful organizations of all kinds have long term strategies like this and the ones that dont die. MLB is horrible at reaching younger generations, and older generations for that matter.
If you think having an hour of kids interviewing players will attract the younger generation then you have just as much disconnect to them as the MLB does
We don’t actually know if any of these RSN contracts are in good shape. The security of this cash flow for the teams depends heavily on the financial health of the RSNs. If they go under, the income goes with them. If I was the Dodgers, for example, I’d be worried about whether Charter-Spectrum can continue to pay the team over $300M a year through 2039.
It’s impossible the Dodgers would have arrived at a deal w/ Charter-Spectrum without ascertaining whether they can handle the yearly payments.
And it was impossible for them to know in 2013 what the media landscape would look like in 2039. Already it’s looking a lot less favorable after several RSN bankruptcies. Nothing on heaven or earth guarantees that Charter-Spectrum will be around 14 years from now.
More evidence: the Dodgers did not arrive at this deal with Charter-Spectrum. The 2013 contract was with Time-Warner Cable, a company that no longer exists.
So, it may come to pass in a few years that MLB can acquire the media rights of some of the biggest RSNs if their owners have an incentive to unload them. If this happens it will be on account of the financial weakness of the RSNs.
Dumping bad news for the Mariners’ RSN on the last Friday of the season under cover of the Mariners winning the AL West.
Expect ESPN to handle distribution for Mariners local telecasts as it would with the D’backs, Guardians, Rockies, Twins, and Padres. That would come under ESPN’s newly expanded baseball contract that starts next spring.
Also, for reasons of accuracy, the Seattle Kraken and Portland Trail Blazers left Root Sports last year to set up their own local TV operations. And “Turner” is now known as TNT Sports.
Certainly has not been bad news for the RSN to go under for the Padres and Diamondbacks. Payroll spending has increased for both teams.
I hope this won’t hurt the team in any way.
Good luck getting Jays rights from Rogers
Will my cable bill go down now ?
I sure hope so
As long as you plan on not watching Mariners games. You will still have to pay for an MLB package once they take over if you still plan on watching though
I am not a Mariners fan, I just live in their state
And please get rid of their broadcast team! Goldschmidt is horrible, and Angie Mentink and Ryan Smith, seriously! You can keep Rizz on the radio where he belongs. There are plenty of better voices out there.
I love all 3. Angie has improved so much thus year. Aaron us great. I do wish Rizzs did more TV games. I also wish Ken Wilson would return. Hopefully they have streaming in heaven because Niehaus really deserves to watch this year’s team shine.
I think Manfred is out of his mind if he thinks he’s going to get Red Sox, Yankees, or Dodgers broadcast rights.
It’s root root root for the home team,
Til you can’t watch them on TV,
There will be a title wave of change with the Mariners. Soon hanging on to the pitching will change so the opportunity to succeed will have come and gone due to the lack of total targeted investment in the team. This year being the one exception.
Thd guardians lost close to 40 million on tv contract in 2025 with mlb. The guardians and 4 other teams in 2026 are having espn stream their games.