Cardinals have new broadcast partner. Here’s how to watch the Redbirds in 2026
The multi-year saga surrounding the future of St. Louis Cardinals broadcasts on FanDuel Sports Network was resolved Monday, as the team announced it would leave the beleaguered Main Street Sports group and transfer control of its broadcasts to Major League Baseball’s production studio.
The new broadcast will be available through a website, Cardinals.tv, allowing fans to stream games within the St. Louis local market. The team also said broadcasts will remain available through existing cable and satellite providers, though specific agreements are still being negotiated.
“Our top priority is making sure that Cardinals fans can watch their team as easily as possible,” said Cardinals senior vice president of business operations Anuk Karunaratne. “Whether you prefer cable, satellite, or streaming, you’ll have uninterrupted access to every in-market game through this new model. MLB brings world-class production capabilities, and we’re excited about what this means for the future of Cardinals broadcasts.”
A full-season streaming package will cost $99.99, or $19.99 per month, the club said.
The move follows a prolonged liquidity struggle by Main Street Sports, formerly Diamond Sports Group, the hedge fund that acquired Fox’s former regional sports networks before a merger with Disney. Through these corporate transactions, the RSNs incurred a significant percentage of debt, bringing the sustainability of expensive rights deals into question.
Those rights deals have underpinned much of baseball’s economics for the last two decades. As questions arose regarding their viability, some owners—including the Cardinals—curtailed spending, contributing to growing competitive disparity around the league.
Last year, the Cardinals renegotiated their rights fees, accepting a cut of up to 20%. The contract was fulfilled for the 2025 season, but the first payment due for 2026 was missed. Main Street’s failure to pay rights fees to the Cardinals at the end of 2025 raised alarms across professional sports, precipitating the network’s latest downward spiral.
The Cardinals are now the eighth team to turn broadcast rights over to MLB, joining Arizona, Cleveland, Colorado, Minnesota, San Diego, Seattle and, most recently, the Washington Nationals.
In those other cases, teams have retained full autonomy over their broadcast personnel, maintaining the same in-game experience. Chip Caray, Brad Thompson and Mark Sweeney are all expected to remain in their current Cardinals broadcast roles.
However, changes are expected in personnel. Jim Hayes will return in a more limited capacity, as had been planned even before the Main Street Sports departure. Alexa Datt, the broadcast’s other sideline host, recently accepted a similar position with her hometown Nationals and has left the St. Louis market.
For most viewers, the broadcast experience will be largely unchanged aside from a new graphics package and potentially more pre- and post-game content produced at MLB Network’s national studios in New Jersey. It remains unclear whether MLB-produced broadcasts will continue with the current Cardinals pre- and post-game show format, which frequently featured Datt or Scott Warmann with Al Hrabosky.
Such decisions have been made individually by teams that transitioned to the MLB model, based on local demand and cost considerations.
The club said details on spring training broadcasts will be finalized in the coming weeks. The Cardinals open their spring schedule Feb. 21, facing the Washington Nationals at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla.
Broadcast personnel have already begun preparing for spring broadcasts, regardless of which network carries them, suggesting fans should expect significant television coverage. All spring games will also be available on KMOX or via the MLB app’s radio stream.
A further rights fee reduction is expected with the move to MLB-produced broadcasts. The Cardinals, who have scaled back payroll as they begin a rebuild, matched an anticipated decline in revenue with reduced costs. In the short term, no constraints are expected on baseball operations; in fact, the pending broadcast transition likely influenced some recent baseball decisions.
The long-term outlook for the broadcast package remains unclear. MLB is expected to explore a unified national streaming package as early as 2028, but significant economic issues must be addressed in collective bargaining. For now, Cardinals fans will continue to watch their team as before — just on a new channel.