Texas Rangers' new media-rights deal includes a couple twists

Compared to many of their peers in MLB, the Texas Rangers have had a busy, smart offseason.

They signed designated hitter/outfielder Joc Pederson and traded for corner infielder Jake Burger, adding power to a lineup that underwhelmed in 2024. They bolstered a sagging bullpen by signing Chris Martin, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong and Hoby Wilner. They traded for another reliever, Robert Garcia, in the deal that sent first baseman Nate Lowe to Washington.

Whatever concerns their uncertain regional sports network situation presented would seem to be fairly minimal. Diamond Sports Group (which has since rebranded as Main Street Sports Group) split up with the Rangers last October amid its reorganization in bankruptcy court. The partnership brought the Rangers "around $110 million per year," per Sportico, and the absence of an RSN partner has put a governor on many teams' offseason plans.

In MLB, the RSN model has been the primary bankroller of teams' payrolls. These partnerships have allowed the Los Angeles Dodgers to sign Shohei Ohtani for $700 million in 2023, and the New York Mets to sign Juan Soto for $765 million in December, each a record-setting contract at the time it was signed.

The Rangers were one of a dozen teams — more than one-third of the league — whose balance sheet was threatened by Diamond Sports' bankruptcy. Monday, they clarified their plans to stream games in 2025 by partnering with Victory+ for the coming season.

"The Rangers' partnership with Victory+ as our direct-to-consumer provider is a tremendous first step as the club continues to finalize our television offerings for 2025 game broadcasts," Rangers Sports Media & Entertainment Company chairman Neil Leibman said in a statement. "Victory+ has proven itself over the past few months as a reliable streaming home for several professional sports teams, and we feel Rangers fans will enjoy the familiarity, convenience and simplicity of this service."

Victory+ also carries the NHL's Dallas Stars. While Stars games are available to subscribers without a surcharge, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that Rangers games will cost extra.

Although Victory+ is a familiar service for fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the uncertainty regarding their present and future plans has presented some unusual twists and turns for fans who merely want to know where and how to watch Rangers games.

The Dallas Morning-News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram have reported that the team wants to essentially build its own RSN for the long term by negotiating individual deals directly with various streaming and/or cable providers. The Rangers are expected to announce the final details regarding their non-streaming options for fans in the coming weeks, but even those announcements could be a temporary solution while the long-term details are ironed out.

Regardless of how it shakes out, Rangers fans can consider themselves fortunate. Their team projects to open the 2025 season with a $214 million payroll on Opening Day, only a slight haircut from the $225 million payroll with which it opened last season, and a notable increase from the $196 million payroll it carried on Opening Day two seasons ago — when the Rangers won the World Series.

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