The most consistent complaint I have heard from Twins fans over the past three years is simple: It was getting harder and/or more expensive to watch their favorite team play.
First, they disappeared from streaming services like Hulu and YouTube TV. Then their deal with Bally Sports North grew tenuous, and worst of all didn’t include a streaming option. The last straw for longtime fans came this past season when the Twins weren’t available on Comcast, the largest cable provider in Minnesota, for half the season.
Given all that, their announcement Tuesday of a new broadcast partnership with Major League Baseball can only be viewed as a breath of fresh air. If we’re quibbling, it would have been nice to have had it a year ago.
But the Twins can’t undo the past, even if they might want to. Some of the details of the new deal with MLB, including financial ones, aren’t known yet. As I talked about on Wednesday’s “Daily Delivery” podcast, though, it should address a lot of the major shortcomings and fan frustrations of the past few years.
The biggest checklist item is the Twins will now be available with a direct-to-consumer standalone subscription for fans in the Twins viewing area. Translation: no limits on who can watch games.
“It will eliminate all blackouts as we have come to know and hate them,” Twins President Dave St. Peter said.
If it’s the same price as it was for MLB teams in 2024, it would cost fans $19.99 a month or $99.99 for the season.
That’s huge for the swaths of fans who don’t have traditional cable or satellite monthly subscriptions but want to watch the Twins on a nightly basis. In a news release announcing the move, MLB and the Twins said the switch will increase broadcast reach from a little over 1 million homes to over 4 million homes.
