FanDuel Sports Will Continue to Broadcast Brewers Games in 2025

[Jack Stern]

After previously announcing an arrangement under which the Brewers would have produced their telecasts and distributed them through Major League Baseball, the club is returning to the status quo by re-upping with Diamond Sports Group.

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

The Brewers have reached a new agreement with Diamond Sports Group to produce and distribute 2025 game telecasts on FanDuel Sports Network (previously branded as Bally Sports), the club announced on Tuesday.

"The media landscape is complex and evolving rapidly, but our top priority is to ensure that Brewers games are available to fans regardless of where they live and how they connect to the broadcasts," Brewers President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger said in a media release. "For many years, our television ratings have remained among the highest in baseball; the team has enjoyed a consistent run of success on the field and the future is promising with some of the game's best and brightest stars calling Milwaukee home. We look forward to working with FanDuel Sports Network to deliver the best content in and around our game telecasts."

The news is a course reversal from the previous plan for Brewers telecasts. After the team's contract with Diamond expired after the 2024 season, it announced that MLB Advanced Media would assist in producing and distributing telecasts moving forward. This arrangement would have enabled fans to stream games through a Brewers-specific MLB.TV package without blackouts and opened the possibility of the team producing and broadcasting expanded content via streaming and its own cable and satellite channels in the future.

Separating from Diamond and going the MLB route also presented financial challenges for a team in baseball's smallest market. The Brewers' television rights deal was a major source of revenue for the club. Ownership downplayed the loss by pointing to other revenue streams like ticket and merchandise sales, sponsorships, and revenue sharing, but operating without a broadcast deal almost certainly put the club in a financial bind.

Other teams to re-up with Diamond this offseason, including the division-rival St. Louis Cardinals, have accepted reduced revenue from their previous deals. Even if that's the case here, the new agreement presumably gives the Brewers more cost certainty than the alternative. While unlikely to dramatically alter the course of a quiet offseason, it could eliminate the need for further payroll cuts or add enough wiggle room for another middle-tier addition.

For fans, access to broadcasts will remain largely the same as in recent seasons. Those living within the Brewers' regional broadcast market can watch games on cable if their provider carries FanDuel Sports Network or can purchase a FanDuel Sports streaming package. New for 2025, in-market fans can also stream games through Amazon Prime Video as an add-on subscription. Out-of-market fans can continue watching on MLB.TV but remain subject to local blackouts.

FanDuel Sports Network will carry all regular-season Brewers games not selected for national broadcasts. The pregame and postgame shows for each telecast will also return in their usual 30-minute format.

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[Sugarrayray]

I simply do not like Diamond/Bally as an organization, but this can only be good for this year’s payroll. Whether that’s leaving room for midseason additions or like mentioned above, not having to make any further payroll cuts, this is nice.

Like perhaps if Arnold was feeling pressure to lower payroll by trading Aaron Civale, I would imagine that now that is not the case. Nothing drastic, but when you’re penny pinching, something like this can be a nice surprise boon.