Braves and eight other MLB teams ended local rights deals with Main Street
Network to be available on league’s streaming service for all fans
Houston Astros’ Space City Home Network makes strong start on streaming
The Atlanta Braves have launched a new local television network after terminating their media rights deal with Main Street Sports Group.
The ‘BravesVision’ multimedia platform will be the local television home for all Braves games starting with the upcoming 2026 campaign. It will produce more than 140 games for fans in six states, as well as pre-game and post-game programming for the coming season.
The Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise noted they will have full control of the production, sales, marketing and distribution of their local game broadcasts. Their approach contrasts with eight MLB teams who are handing back their broadcast rights to the league after cutting ties with Main Street earlier this year.
However, the Braves confirmed BravesVision will be available on MLB’s streaming platform to fans in all locations. Gray Media will also air a select number of regular season games over-the-air in Atlanta and across local territories through its network of broadcast stations.
The baseball outfit aims to finalise additional distribution deals with other cable, satellite and streaming services to widen BravesVision’s reach in time for the 2026 season. In nationally televised games, the Braves will appear on Fox, ESPN, TBS, NBC and Apple, as part of MLB’s new set of broadcast agreements.
“This endeavour will bring the most vital link to our fanbase – our television broadcast – back under the control of our organisation,” said Derek Schiller, Braves’ president and chief executive. “Generations of Braves fans were raised watching games on a network that shared ownership with the baseball team.
“With BravesVision, we believe that we can present Braves baseball in new and innovative ways allowing us to expand and elevate our storytelling capabilities across all of our platforms.”
The Braves join several other MLB teams to create their own media venture for their local game broadcasts. The Texas Rangers, the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros are among those to recently establish their own networks as increased cord-cutting threatens the finances of regional sports networks (RSNs).
The Astros jointly operate the Space City Home Network (SCHN) alongside the Houston Rockets, with the linear channel accompanied by a newly launched direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service.
Since launching in December, the SCHN+ platform has recorded over 500,000 streams across all supported devices. The DTC service, operated by ViewLift, is available in local territories online, on streaming services Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, and on connected TV platform Roku.
The encouraging figures for SCHN come as the Rockets make a push for the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs, while the Astros are commencing spring training ahead of the new season.
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