The Tigers announced the launch of Detroit SportsNet, an entity which will broadcast the club’s games this year as well as those of the NHL’s Red Wings starting with the 2026-27 season. Fans can subscribe for $19.99 per month or $189.99 for an entire year, which would allow them to stream both clubs. The games will also be on television in some form but full cable/satellite details aren’t yet available.
Up until recently, the Tigers were one of many MLB clubs to have a deal with Main Street Sports, previously known as Diamond Sports Group. That company, which operated the FanDuel Sports Network channels in 2025, has been going through tough financial times in recent years. They recently missed some payments to some MLB clubs. The nine teams who still had deals with the company, one of which was the Tigers, terminated their deals in January.
Of those nine, six of them quickly pivoted to having Major League Baseball handling their broadcasts. The Tigers, Angels and Braves were the three left up in the air. Atlanta recently launched their own regional sports network (RSN) called BravesVision.
On the surface, this appears to be the Tigers essentially going the MLB route. The club announcement today says that Detroit SportsNet will be “Powered by MLB.” Customers will be able to stream games through the MLB app. The one element that seems to make this a bit more unique is that the Red Wings are involved, a logical pairing since the Ilitch family owns both clubs.
Down the line, it will be interesting to see if this leads to a significant difference in the revenue brought in. Several teams have ended up with MLB after the collapse of an RSN deal. This route can sometimes lead to more viewers as it allows clubs to offer direct-to-customer streaming with no blackouts, but it can also lead to less revenue overall. Travis Sawchik of MLB.com reports that teams in this bucket get about 50% less than before, on average. As of a few years ago, the Tigers were getting about $60MM from their RSN deal. Having the Red Wings and Tigers in the same package could lead to more subscribers but the revenues will also presumably be split.
The Tigers have had a few notable financial developments this winter. In addition to this RSN situation, they also saw Tarik Skubal file an arbitration number far higher than anyone expected. He ended up winning his hearing and will make $32MM this year, $13MM more than the club’s $19MM filing figure.
Despite the uncertainty of the RSN situation and Skubal’s big raise, the team still spent aggressively this winter. They signed a number of free agents, most notably giving a $115MM guarantee to left-hander Framber Valdez. They are projected to set a new franchise record in terms of payroll and the competitive balance tax.
The broadcasts will seemingly be fairly unchanged compared to previous seasons, with the on-air talent expected to return. Details on the specific television channels carrying the games will be revealed in the future. It’s not yet clear which app will be used to access Red Wings games.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Aren’t sports magical, kids?
Team number 16 to own/co-own their own network
Good for them, even though they had to partner with the hockey team to do it.
Better for the fans if you can get all your local sports with one subscription
Two for the price of one. I’m not complaining.
I was talking how they had to do it rather than the channel itself. Glad the Tigers worked it out and hope they didn’t lose too much income in the process.
MLB should have taken care of these RSN issues long ago.
I think this is a good idea. Most Tigers fans are Red Wings fans and vice versa. If you could cancel cable and still get the Red Wings and Tigers for 1/5 the price, a lot of people will do that.
I did not care for Benneti doing the Chisox games in Chicago. He wanted to be let out of his tv contract due to lack of respect shown to him by front office people.
He did not want to be here, I.hope he finds happiness in Detroit.
Reinsdorf probably wanted to pay him a lot less than the norm after giving him entry level money to start. The play-by-play guy that replaced Benetti is abysmal-got what he paid for in line with onfield team results.
$19.99 per month? 8 Little Caesars Pizzas. Kind of a joke
I live out of market (Western New York) but have been able to watch by logging in to my parents DirecTV account (they live in Michigan). I just want to know if I can still do that or what options I have if living out of market.
Yes. You should able to. I’ve done it for years with the Yankees living out of state.
Hope this works out for the Tigers. I’m looking at a Pirates Tigers World Series. I’m a fan of neither team but the more I think about it the more I can see that happening. Call me crazy.
So the Tigers were getting $60mm from broadcast rights, and Skubal and Valdez get more than that. Now the Tigers will get less. Yet fans complain that they don’t spend. Does this help you understand?
Partnership with the Red Wings is a cool addition.
This is the new normal. Regional sports networks are dead.