Fear not – fans will be able watch Milwaukee Brewers games on television this season. But details, like which channels will carry them, aren’t likely to be finalized until right before Opening Day on Thursday, March 26, when the Brew Crew hosts the Chicago White Sox.
“I can assure fans that, if they’re used to watching games on cable, satellite and streaming, they’re invariably going to have very similar options for 2026,” Brewers President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger said this week while speaking with reporters at American Family Field.
Brewers’ games this season will be produced and distributed by Major League Baseball after broadcast rights were transferred from Main Street Sports (formerly Diamond Sports Group), which oversees FanDuel Sports Wisconsin.
MLB, which controls local TV rights for 15 clubs, is in the process of negotiating distribution and production deals for Brewers games with the new season less than a week away.
“I suspect they’ll get it done maybe a couple days before Opening Day, but fans will find us,” Schlesinger said. “Priority one for us is getting the mass distribution of our games to as many fans in the Wisconsin market as we can.”
Schlesinger noted that all on-air talent from last season’s broadcasts will return and fans will experience broadcasts that will be similar to years past along with “a couple of new cool camera angles and just a little bit higher production quality.”
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The Brewers also have a new streaming platform, Brewers.TV, where paid subscribers can catch all locally distributed regular-season Brewers games live and on-demand. The platform won’t include select regular-season and postseason games that are exclusive to national MLB media partners.
Brewers.TV is available for a $99.99 per season subscription. Monthly subscriptions will also be available starting March 23 for $19.99 a month. Brewers’ games will also be accessible via streaming on MLB.TV and MLB Extra Innings.
The Brewers recently announced that 10 broadcasts this season, including Opening Day, will be available for free on “over the air” channels in most markets throughout the state, including WITI-TV (Channel 6) in Milwaukee, through a continuing partnership with locally owned Good Karma Brands.
Here are the 10 games that will be broadcast on over-the-air channels:
- March 26: vs. Chicago White Sox, 1:10 p.m.
- March 31: vs. Tampa Bay Rays, 6:40 p.m.
- April 28: vs. Arizona Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m.
- May 12: vs. San Diego Padres, 6:40 p.m.
- May 19: at Chicago Cubs, 6:40 p.m.
- June 2: vs. San Francisco Giants, 6:40 p.m.
- Aug. 4: vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, 6:40 p.m.
- Aug. 18: vs. Seattle Mariners, 6:40 p.m.
- Aug. 25: at New York Mets, 6:10 p.m.
- Sept. 8: vs. Chicago Cubs, 6:40 p.m.
The change in the broadcast setup will affect revenue, Schlesinger said.
“Our payroll is up this year. We’re spending money. We’re investing in the product but there’s now less money coming in than there would have been with FanDuel,” he said. “But this was a contingency, frankly, that we projected and we budgeted for. Whenever you’re working with an entity and there are some concerns about its financing and budgeting, you always put a contingency in place. We had a great backstop with MLB, but the economics are different.”
Schlesinger said he’s confident that other revenue sources will help offset the reduced income stemming from the TV broadcast rights shift.
“I’m not really worried about it, because we have other sources of revenue and we’re expecting great attendance and fantastic sponsorship support. So, whether it’s the draft picks, payroll, front office staff or projects we’re investing in, the television shortfall is not impacting us on those fronts at all,” he said.
