When Will Chicago Cubs Games Be Available Without a Pay TV Sub?

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man – @tvanswerman

The Marquee Sports Network, the regional TV home of the Chicago Cubs, plans to offer a standalone streaming service next month sometime after the All-Star Game (July 11), the team’s president of business operations told 670 The Score on Saturday.

“To reach our fans that have cut the cord, we’re introducing a streaming service this year,” Kenney said. “We’re aiming for July, sometime after the All-Star break, to bring a service for those who say I cut the cord, I don’t have Fubo — which we are available on — but I’d like to buy Marquee individually, just the channel, to see Cubs games.”

If the team launches a streaming service separate from traditional pay TV services, such as cable and satellite, it will continue a growing trend in Major League Baseball. The Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and San Diego Padres are already available without need of a multi-channel pay TV subscription. And Bally Sports Plus, the standalone streaming unit for Diamond Sports, also offers the games of five MLB teams (Rays, Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers) via separate subscriptions.

““The landscape for media consumption – I would just put it in the terms of consumers, you know, people are finding their programming in all sorts of ways, not just with cable and satellite subscriptions,” Kenney said. “Streaming services seem to be popping up daily. We’ve seen a few teams – the Red Sox and Yankees and then a few of the Bally teams and most notably the Padres just launched a streaming service after their rights were returned to them in the bankruptcy. So the world is changing very, very quickly, even since the 2019 launch of Marquee, which is primarily on cable and satellite.”

Kenney did not reveal what a standalone Marquee Sports service would cost. Current standalone streaming services from MLB teams cost anywhere from $19.99 a month to $29.99 a month.

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