Resources For TV Channel Developers

The Cubs are exploring a direct-to-consumer streaming option with a goal to make it available for the 2023 season, president of business operations Crane Kenney told the Chicago Tribune in a wide-ranging conversation.

There are notable hurdles, however, to launching a direct-to-consumers streaming venture — namely Major League Baseball, distributors, pricing and technology.

“The ability to just freeform, bring wall-to-wall Cubs coverage to our fans (with Marquee Sports Network), that was always the dream,” Kenney said Thursday. “The question then is: how do you go deeper?”

Many major-league franchises view paid streaming services as the next step in the relationship between team and fans who have cut the cord. The product’s price and what the streaming service entails would involve working with the cable service to determine those parameters.

Ensuring the Marquee app is technologically strong enough to handle the service is important. Kenney envisions a DTC programming model creating an opportunity for a two-way experience. Cubs fans potentially could buy tickets or purchase merchandise before a new release sells out through the streaming service.

“There’s a bunch of different vertical businesses that you can build alongside just the video production,” Kenney said. “We want to make sure it’s as robust as it can be.”

MLB has long presented a challenge in creating a streaming option.

MLB TV’s blackout restrictions currently impede teams in areas where the cable service does not carry their respective regional sports network’s games. So for baseball fans in Des Moines, Iowa, the site of the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, they are prevented from watching Cubs, White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers games on MLB TV. In-market fans are blacked out on the league’s streaming service, too.