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In a move rarely seen in the middle of a season, the Texas Rangers are changing streaming partners effective immediately.
According to a report by Dallas Morning News reporter Evan Grant, the Rangers will be dropping their streaming partnership with Victory+, which has offered a full-season streaming subscription for in-market Rangers fans since last season for a price of $100, and will switch to a startup platform called BZZR beginning with this Friday’s game against the Atlanta Braves. The move was reportedly made out of concern for Victory+’s ability to fulfill its financial obligations to the team.
The Rangers confirmed the decision on Wednesday morning.
Per Grant, all subscribers that had bought packages on Victory+ will have their accounts transferred over to BZZR. The move will not impact the linear distribution of Rangers Sports Network on cable and satellite services like DirecTV.
“It is unfortunate that this switch in direct-to-consumer distributors was necessary, but the decision was made in the best interest of both the Rangers and our fans,” Rangers Sports Media and Entertainment Company chairman Neil Leibman said in a statement.
The Rangers’ decision paints a grim picture for Victory+, a nascent streaming service that has staked its claim in an all-out effort to court MLB, NBA, and NHL teams to place local broadcasts on the platform. In most markets, Victory+ has introduced a free streaming model in which games are broadcast in front of a paywall and revenue is generated through advertising. The Rangers, with their $100 per season subscription, were an exception. The Dallas Stars, however, chose the free model. Per Grant, no changes have been made regarding the Stars’ local broadcast plans for next season.
Other teams on active deals with Victory+ include the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and Minnesota Lynx, the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, and a league-wide deal with the NWSL.
Victory+ has reportedly been in the mix to secure local broadcast rights to some of the 13 NBA teams that were previously under contract with Main Street Sports Group, owner of the now-defunct FanDuel Sports Networks. So far, the streamer has not struck deals with any of those teams. Per Sports Business Journal, potential deals with the Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets, and Minnesota Timberwolves all fell through after Victory+ failed to secure new financing. The three former Main Street clubs that have already announced local broadcast arrangements for next season have all chosen to partner with over-the-air broadcast networks.
If Victory+’s finances are as dire as the Rangers seem to believe, it’s difficult to envision any of the 10 remaining NBA teams looking for local broadcast solutions to choose to partner with the platform.
The post Texas Rangers change streaming partner mid-season, drop Victory+ appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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