The Atlanta Braves' TV broadcast situation is certainly a mess. Main Street Sports (formerly Diamond Sports) heading towards bankruptcy again is not the team's fault. At the time, continuing to deal with Main Street's nonsense still represented the best deal for them in the short-term from a revenue as well as a practicality standpoint. Now that the Braves are making the leap with their own network, however, everything is up in the air.
Fans want to know what is next for the Braves. How will fans actually be able to watch Atlanta play? What changes to the broadcast could come beyond the channel the Braves are on? Will it cost more now to watch the Braves play? With spring training right around the corner, there are simply no concrete answers right now.
However, that doesn't mean we don't have some clues as to the Braves' plans. The team's statement certainly implies that they have been planning for this eventuality. More than that, though, is a piece that came out from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Ken Sugiura just a few days before the TV news broke about how the Braves may prefer to work with a local TV partner they have worked with before in Gray Media. Given the timing of that article, this could be the answer to at least some of fans' questions with the 2026 season coming up fast.
Braves' TV network plans may very well involve Gray Media after their limited partnership was a success
If Gray Media sounds familiar, it is because they are the media company that the Braves had previously given limited ability to broadcast games last season on channels like Peachtree Sports Network. By all accounts, that partnership was a success (particularly for Gray Media) which could serve as the basis of a more widespread agreement.
For the Braves, it would make a lot of sense to use existing broadcast infrastructure given how close this radical change is to the literal start of the season. Gray has a presence throughout the Braves' market and Atlanta would not have to struggle to find a brand new broadcast partner in a matter of weeks that could physically make the broadcasts work. When you think about it, this may be easily the best path forward for Atlanta given the circumstances.
Odds are that we won't have to wait too long to figure out exactly what the Braves are going to do. The organization is going to want to make sure they have enough time to spread the word about how to watch the team so that fans can make whatever changes they need to to their existing cable/streaming plans. However, it sure seems like the Braves may have already telegraphed their next moves, but we just didn't foresee exactly how soon or how much things would change in the blink of an eye.