There’s nothing better than relaxing on a nice summer night and turning on your favorite baseball team, or sitting back and watching an NFL Sunday play out during the fall. These moments are unfortunately becoming less and less common as you scroll through the guide to look for your local team or the national game, and you just can’t seem to find them anywhere. What once was as easy as finding the channel has now turned into multiple streaming services, apps you have never heard of, steep prices, and an overall unenjoyable experience when trying to watch sporting events. The switch from sports on cable to sports on streaming services has gotten out of control, and the problem has grown for fans of all teams.
For decades, Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) existed in almost every major sports city. Here in Detroit, we had Fox Sports Detroit from 1997 to 2021. It was simple, you turned on the TV and the majority of Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons games were on the network with no added costs to obtain the channel. This all went downhill when Sinclair Broadcast Group bought Fox Sports Networks in 2020, changing the name of the network to Bally Sports Detroit. However, due to countless reasons such as millions of dollars in debt, multiple bankruptcies, name changes, and overall uncertainties if this company would stay in business, teams had enough.
On Feb. 9, 2026, the Tigers and Red Wings announced that they would be starting their own joint sports channel called Detroit Sports Network. On the outside, it seemed like an easy way to watch these teams, but the catch is it costs $19.99 per month or $189.99 per year, and it is an entirely different streaming app from normal cable. You may also be wondering where the Pistons are in on this equation, and that is entirely unknown. There is speculation that they may create their own streaming service or join in with the Tigers and Red Wings, but nothing is confirmed. The uncertainty and hassle of just being able to watch your local team has skyrocketed in the past few years, but what about watching national games?
For years, the three most popular sports leagues in the USA (NFL, NBA, and MLB) all played their national games on major national channels. You could always find the NFL on CBS, NBC, Fox or ESPN, the NBA on ABC, ESPN, and TNT, and the MLB on Fox, TBS, or ESPN. While you can still see these leagues play games on those channels, the switch to streaming services has slowly gained ground over the past few years.
For the MLB, in 2024, every Sunday morning game has been shown only on the Roku Channel, and starting this year, every Sunday morning Peacock has an exclusive game. Along with that, the NBA has started broadcasting weekly games on Amazon Prime and Peacock.
The league that has taken the streaming services to the greatest extent is the NFL. Thursday Night Football became Amazon Prime exclusive in 2022, Christmas Day games became shown exclusively on Netflix starting in 2024, and even an NFL playoff game became Peacock or Amazon Prime exclusive in 2023.
You may be wondering, “So what?” with all that information. The problem is that if you want to watch your local team as well as when your teams are playing on streaming services in 2026, the cost adds up to $655. That is, if you include all the streaming services and your local team’s streaming service. What once was as easy as turning on to the national and local channels has now become an outrageous ask for the average fan.
The reason the change to streaming services has become very popular is simple: the leagues earn more money. According to sportsepreneur.com, the NFL has made $6.7 billion in streaming services alone since 2023.
As for a regional sports network, two of the MLB’s most successful franchises, the Dodgers and Yankees, have had their own channel for years. And according to sportspro.com, the Yankees make about $143 million from the YES network.
It seems as if the streaming service epidemic in major sports leagues will not be slowing down anytime soon. If the trend continues in future years, then streaming services will only become more prevalent in these leagues, and the issue will only grow, or the leagues may lose some of their audience entirely. Combine these steep prices of streaming with the cost of tickets to attend these games in person, and it seems as if the average fan will be priced out of their favorite teams.
The most frustrating aspect is the constant uncertainty about where games will be broadcast. You never know what the next app your favorite team will be playing on and where to find the game. But all in all, the leagues know one thing for certain: no matter what, their fans want to see their teams play and will most likely pay for it.
