MLB Could End Blackouts for Cord Cutters on In-Market Games

During MLB's owners' meetings last week, commissioner Rob Manfred's central talking point was hammering out an amended "interactive media rights agreement."

As Manfred noted, "The biggest single change" he prioritized "was the return of certain in-market digital rights -- the rights that have essentially become substitutional with broadcast rights -- those rights will return to the clubs."

There's a lot of jargon in there, but Manfred is essentially stating that cord-cutters might just be permitted to stream local games in their respective markets potentially as soon as next season, something they've been annoyingly barred from doing in the past due to television blackout restrictions.

MLB attempted to implement a similar blueprint prior to the 2019 campaign, but an agreement was not reached. Now, however, it appears that the league is motivated to follow in the footsteps of other professional sports leagues; for instance, mirroring what the NBA has done with its NBA TV streaming package.

Even the notoriously slow-rolling NFL has dabbled with similar ideas, though their plans are still likely a season or two away from coming to fruition.

The ins and outs of this proposed plan have yet to be revealed, which mean's nothing is set in stone, but it's certainly promising that talks have evolved at all. In-market games may no longer be blacked out when regular season baseball resumes anew, a moment that would amount to a big win for fans across the country.