Nexstar Slides Into Texas Rangers’ TV Lineup
Promotion for the new network from the Texas Rangers website
Nexstar Media Group said it made a deal with the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team to air at least 15 regular season games on 19 broadcast stations during the 2025 season.
The Rangers are one of the big league teams no longer carried on one of the cable regional sports networks owned by Diamond Sports Group. Diamond was renamed as Main Street Sports Group after emerging from bankruptcy earlier this month.
The Rangers announced plans to form its own Rangers Sports Network, which will produce and distribute the team’s games. The new network is being carried by satellite and cable operators including DirecTV and Spectrum. The team also created a Victory+ streaming service, giving fans a direct-to-consumer option.
Nexstar will be airing Rangers games on its stations in Texas markets, including KDAF in Dallas-Ft. Worth; KIAH, Houston; and KBVO, Austin. It will also carrying the games on stations in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Seventeen of the stations are owned by Nexstar. KCWD, owned by Corridor Television, will broadcast games in San Antonio and Griffin Media’s KQDW will show the games in Tulsa.
The stations will also carry four spring training games.
With cord-cutting eroding the number of cable subscribers, some teams have turned to broadcasting as a way of reaching a larger fan base. While the new deals are less lucrative than the the old cable contracts (and Diamond said it lost money on many of them), the teams are hoping that the wider availability of games on broadcast will stir fan interest and help sell tickets and merchandise.
“We are extremely pleased to be bringing Rangers baseball to the best fans in the country, and to have KDAF/CW33 serving as the flagship station for Rangers broadcasts in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division. “Securing 15 regular season games and four spring training games for broadcast on free over-the-air television is a clear demonstration of Nexstar’s commitment to serving our local communities with high-quality live sports and entertainment programming.”
The first regular-season game on Nexstar’s stations will air Friday, March 28, against the Boston Red Sox.