After more than four decades of the vast majority of their regular-season games being broadcast in television’s regional sports network space, the Tigers and Red Wings are embarking on a new path.
Ilitch Sports & Entertainment announced Monday the Tigers and Red Wings are officially leaving FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, and both teams’ games largely will be distributed by Major League Baseball.
The new deal starts with the 2026 MLB season. The Red Wings are expected to move for 2026-27, unless a collapse of FDSN forces a hasty exit during this current season.
There still are plenty of details that need to be worked out, specifically with subscription offerings and pricing, though an announcement on that front, at least for 2026 Tigers games, is expected this month with spring training getting started this week in Lakeland, Florida.
What is known, as of today, is this: Fans will continue to have the same options for viewing games that they have now ― through a traditional cable package or direct-to-consumer streaming. Only the distribution platform is changing.
Monday’s announcement from Ilitch Sports & Entertainment comes as the regional sports network industry continues to face significant financial woes, amid continued cord-cutting and steep declines in advertising revenues. FanDuel Sports Network Detroit’s parent company, Main Street Sports Group, has been exploring a sale for several weeks, and without that Hail Mary, it has signaled it could face another round in bankruptcy court or, more likely, shutter the business entirely, potentially even during the current NHL and NBA seasons.
Main Street Sports Group has missed monthly rights payments in recent weeks to many if not all of its MLB, NHL and NBA teams, with the Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons believed to be among those who are holding IOUs.
“Given recent uncertainty throughout the regional sports broadcasting industry, we recognize the importance of providing fans with a consistent, year-round outlet to watch Tigers baseball and Red Wings hockey,” Ryan Gustafson, president and CEO of Ilitch Sports & Entertainment, said in a statement Monday.
“We have two of the top-rated broadcasts in our respective sports and remain focused on listening to fans about what matters most to them. What we’ve heard includes making sure our games are available throughout the market, providing a reliable streaming product, and producing a broadcast that’s most informative and entertaining in all the right ways. This is a great path forward in those areas, allowing us to provide a great experience for fans throughout our local market.”
Before Monday’s announcement, eight MLB teams had moved their TV game broadcasts to the MLB Media umbrella, distributed via MLB.TV, most recently the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Tigers’ move is unique, in that they’re moving with the Red Wings, as both teams are owned by the Ilitch family, and long have packaged their media rights deals, for TV and radio. The Tigers first moved to the RSN space in 1984, with the launching of PASS, which in the 1990s made way for Fox Sports Detroit, which eventually became Bally Sports Detroit and finally FanDuel Sports Network Detroit. The Red Wings joined PASS in 1986.
MLB has stepped in to allow the Tigers and Red Wings to make another move together, marking the first-of-its-kind deal with MLB getting involved in distribution of game broadcasts for another sport.
MLB will negotiate the traditional cable distribution for the Tigers and Red Wings, with a standalone channel (as of yet, unnamed) set to be launched, and expected to be available via all major cable players, including Xfinity. Like with the latest iteration of FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, access to the new Tigers and Red Wings channel ― which will be dark when not airing the games ― will be available on a higher subscription tier, meaning it’s going to be an add-on to a basic cable bill.
For fans without cable, there will be a direct-to-consumer (DTC) option for both the Tigers and Red Wings, with the Tigers likely to be available through the MLB Media platform, and the Red Wings likely to be available through ESPN Unlimited, by way of MLB Media.
The cost of the cable upgrade and the DTC subscription is still to be determined. FanDuel Sports Network Detroit subscribers have been paying about $20 a month for access to local games, with a discount for buying an annual subscription. It also is unclear if DTC subscribers will be able to purchase access to just Tigers games or just Red Wings games, or if they will get access to both teams’ games under a single subscription.
Either way, cable and DTC subscribers are expected to eventually have access to a single app (also as of yet, unnamed) that will serve as a platform for viewing both Tigers and Red Wings games.
There will be no blackout restrictions for locally produced Tigers and Red Wings games throughout the teams’ local broadcast footprint, which includes all of Michigan and small parts of some neighboring states.
The Tigers will have at least 16 games on national TV or streaming this season, with the rest of the games ― likely, 140 or more ― to be available through the new cable and DTC options.
MLB will largely produce the Tigers’ TV broadcasts, which will continue to feature play-by-play men Jason Benetti and Dan Dickerson (when Benetti is on his national assignments) and analysts Dan Petry, Andy Dirks and Bobby Scales. Ilitch Sports & Entertainment will take over much of the production for the Red Wings’ games, with MLB assisting, and play-by-play man Ken Daniels and analyst Mickey Redmond will return for 2026-27.
It’s not clear how the TV move impacts the bottom lines for the Tigers and Red Wings, who were paid annual rights fees from FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, and before that Bally Sports Detroit and Fox Sports Detroit. The Tigers, at one point not long ago, were believed to make $50 million or more annually from TV rights, though it’s known they took a significant reduction for 2025 to remain with FanDuel Sports Network Detroit as the RSN’s parent company emerged from bankruptcy, and they were facing another steep reduction for 2026.
This will be a different business model. Rather than a traditional rights fee, teams will essentially get to eat what they hunt. In other words, revenues are much more tied to the business each team creates, i.e. how many subscriptions they sell and what kind of viewership numbers they draw. The Tigers, who’ve made back-to-back playoff appearances, saw year-over-year growth of 121% in per-game streamers during the 2025 season. Only five U.S.-based MLB teams saw more growth, and only two had a higher game average rating than the Tigers. The Wings, too, have seen ratings rise recently.
There are signs the Tigers see a rosier financial outlook ahead, even amid the TV switch: They could carry a franchise-record, $230 million payroll for the 2026 season, after agreeing to a three-year, $115 million contract with starting pitcher Framber Valdez last week ― the day before it was announced ace and two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal was awarded a $32 million salary for 2026, through arbitration.
The length of the Tigers’ and Red Wings’ new TV deal wasn’t immediately clear Monday.
The Pistons, owned by Tom Gores, haven’t yet announced their TV plans beyond this current season, though they are known to have been working on their own contingencies should FanDuel Sports Network go bust.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers leaving FanDuel, Wings to follow; here’s what it means for fans
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
