RandBall: As Twins embark on TV deal with MLB, a chance to win back fans

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.

“We also understand the expansion of reach and what that will do for our fan base ultimately, over time, starting to build that direct-to-consumer foundation, which clearly is the future of the way our games will be distributed,” St. Peter said. “It’s time to get on with that.”

It also should help the Twins avoid the sort of disruption they had last year when Diamond Sports was fighting with Comcast over pricing, given that MLB seems to have a better relationship with cable and satellite companies.

Two big questions remaining: The Twins will make less money with this deal than they did on Bally Sports North. What impact will that have on payroll? Even if the Twins say they aren’t cutting more than they did a year ago when they trimmed $30 million off their AL Central-winning team and missed the postseason, even a repeat of this year’s $130 million payroll could make it challenging to add pieces this offseason.

Plus, after years of bad PR and frustration, how many fans will the Twins be able to win back by fixing the TV situation now?