The Chicago Cubs plan to launch a streaming service in July that will carry its games, the team’s president of business operations Crane Kenney said.
Cubs games are televised by Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture between the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Diamond Sports Group, which runs most of Sinclair’s other regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection in March.
The new streaming service would make the games currently available on Marquee to fans who don’t have a traditional pay TV bundle or a virtual pay TV service like Fubo, Kenney said in an interview on The Score, a sports radio station in Chicago.
No price point was disclosed for the direct-to-consumer offering.
Kenney had confirmed the team was looking at streaming options in March.
“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. And to reach our fans that have cut the cord, we’re going to be introducing a streaming service this year,” he said.
Kenney said Marquee has been working on the streaming service for about a year.
“We’re taking our time to make sure this thing is exactly right in terms of both the quality of the program, the type of program, pricing, marketing, ease of access so that it’s available on all devices, whether it’s Roku, a handheld, etc.” Kenney said.
