Braves fans are finally about to get the TV deal option they have pleaded for forever

For Atlanta Braves fans, one of the bigger frustrations from 2024 was all of the drama surrounding their TV deal and actually getting games distributed to fans that wanted to watch them. Amidst Diamond Sports Group's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, the Braves were caught in the crossfire of a dispute between Diamond/Bally and Comcast which kept Braves games off of a lot of in-market TV screens.

The whole saga was indicative of one central hope for baseball fans everywhere: that fans who want to watch the Braves should be able to regardless of where they live or their cable service provider. Blackouts have earned the ire of Braves fans forever and are a relic of the old era of cable that has been left by the wayside as streaming has become ubiquitous in American households. Unfortunately, greed had seemingly won the day in the short-term to the detriment of fans' access.

However, Thursday provided a potentially exciting development towards resolving this issue. Diamond was set to go to battle with MLB in court this week and they had already stated a desire to keep the Braves under their purview while wanting to renegotiating their other TV deals. In response, the Braves filed an objection to this plan in court and promptly withdrew that objection earlier this week which led many to believe that a deal had been struck.

That deal is coming into focus now as it was reported today that there will be, after years of begging, a standalone streaming option to stream Braves games (including in-market) through Amazon's Prime Video or through now FanDuel Sports Network's app.

Braves fans set to finally get a standalone streaming option, but don't celebrate just yet

At the end of the day, Braves fans just want to be able to watch Braves games and 2024 was a deeply frustrating experience for them as games got pulled off a major cable provider for a while and there was deep uncertainty as to what fans should commit to provider-wise to be able to watch games.

With the Braves' withdrawing their objection and the announcement of this deal, this opens a variety of doors for fans now. While Diamond's plan needs to be approved by the judge in the case still, the idea that Braves fans can now subscribe to a service that will give them access to watch Braves games regardless if they are in-market or out of market without having to buy expensive cable packages with channels they don't want/need is a big deal.

Of course, the biggest question is price at the end of the day and that we just don't know yet. If the pricing is comparable to what MLB has been doing with other clubs who lost their TV deals because of Diamond's mess, this could be a massive win for fans. If Amazon and Diamond are going to charge a lot for said standalone service, this could end up being a step backward for a lot of fans.

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