Young Viewers Fed Up With MLB Television Rights Chaos
It’s never been more complicated to follow professional baseball. Take it from me, it took a few days to compile all the information for our 2025 MLB Viewing Guide. Now, it seems all that confusion is convincing younger viewers to give up on the game.
According to a new survey from Civic Science, 36% of people age 18-29 who watched baseball last year plan to watch less Major League Baseball this year. Just 19% of people in that age group plan to watch more baseball in 2025. Nineteen percent of viewers age 30-44 also plan on watching less baseball. For viewers over 45, just 1 in 10 baseball fans expects to watch less.
What’s behind all the fading fandom? You guessed it: the confusing TV rights landscape. Four in 10 Gen Z baseball fans say TV access (or a lack thereof) impacts how often they watch MLB. Half of the general population cited broadcast access as a factor.
In recent months, we’ve seen some MLB and NBA teams abandon regional sports networks like Bally/FanDuel to provide free over-the-air access to games. That’s a step in the right direction. When more people can watch the games, more people become fans. If games are hidden behind expensive or confusing paywalls, it’s hard for baseball novices to fall in love with a team. The NFL is the most popular league in the country because it’s really easy to watch. The NHL, NBA, and MLB are bogged down in a rat’s nest of regional and national providers and the confusion of in-market and out-of-market broadcasts.
Boxing used to be one of the most important sports in the United States. But as fights moved to premium cable like HBO and pay-per-view exclusives, everyone but die-hard fans were priced out. I couldn’t tell you the current Heavyweight Champion of the World, but I can tell you the reigning Super Bowl champ. If sports want to succeed in the future, they need to cultivate new generations of fans. Ideally, the games would be free to watch. Failing that, they could at least be simple to find.
