Astros TV Situation Steady in Comparison to Wild Ride Rangers Face

The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers are both figuring out life with their RSNs, but the Astros are in far better shape.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Houston Astros games are still being broadcast on AT&T SportsNet Southwest, and while it’s not clear when the Astros might take over the broadcast of those games, their situation is much better than that of their in-state rival Texas Rangers.

The Rangers, along with 13 other MLB teams, are embroiled in bankruptcy drama with Diamond Sports Group and Bally Sports, which is the network that took over the contracts held by Fox Sports regional networks in 2019.

The Rangers, along with two other MLB teams and the league, won a lawsuit against DSG in a Houston court in early June in a dispute over media rights fees. DSG hasn’t paid the Rangers their first rights fee payment for the year and the next is expected this month. DSG owes the Rangers a reported $111 million in 2023.

Meanwhile, the majority of the Dallas-Fort Worth area is locked out of watching Rangers games on Bally Sports Southwest because major carriers and streamers like DirecTV and YouTube TV don’t carry the network due to their own rights fee dispute with DSG.

As for the Astros?

Unlike DSG, Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns AT&T SportsNet Southwest and the regional broadcast rights to three MLB teams, simply wants out of the Regional Sports Network (RSN) business due to cost.

Warner Bros. Discovery informed the Astros, the Colorado Rockies and the Pittsburgh Pirates of their intentions in February. Instead of seeking bankruptcy protection, Warner Bros. Discovery sought to return the rights to those teams with the teams waiving the opportunity for further legal action.

That deal reportedly didn’t go through, but according to Sports Business Journal, an alternate deal was in the works:

Under the proposals, MLB is said to be regaining the rights to the Pirates and Rockies with the league’s new local sports division handling both the production and distribution of live games. For the Astros and Rockets the agreement will reportedly see them take over AT&T SportsNet Houston, retaining the network’s existing, long-lasting cable agreements.

Either way, Astros games are being broadcast locally without disruption and they appear pointed toward being in charge of their own broadcasts no later than 2024.

Any way you look at it, that’s a much better situation than the one the Rangers are dealing with right now. 

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