Atlanta Braves say new TV setup thriving in early going but offer few details

Atlanta Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said Monday that the in-house broadcast operation the team started this year, BravesVision, is expected to “meet or exceed the economics” of the team’s prior TV deal. But on a quarterly earnings call, McGuirk and other club executives offered virtually no specifics, such as streaming subscribers, that financial analysts sought to evaluate the team’s media arm.

“We know that many of you will want significant details on the financials of BravesVision,” team CEO Derek Schiller said. “We also know you’ll likely want metrics to measure our success. We understand that’s important, but it is early days in the launch of BravesVision, so we’re going to be thoughtful around which metrics we choose to focus on so that we can give you the best picture of our results. This is only the first quarter, with an extremely limited percentage of our total 162-game season.”

The Braves are the only Major League Baseball team publicly traded as a standalone entity, which means their earnings calls often provide financial insights rarely available elsewhere.

For the first quarter this year, covering Jan. 1 through March 31, the Braves reported a 53 percent increase in overall revenue from the same period in 2025. But it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison: the MLB season started on March 26 this year, and the Braves played five home games in March.  The year before, all their March games were on the road.

Broadcasting revenue for the first quarter this year was about $2.5 million, down 41 percent from last year’s $4.3 million, but that’s a complicated comparison for now as well.

Monday’s call came at a sensitive time, as MLB owners and players are about to embark on collective bargaining. A public back-and-forth over how well MLB teams are faring financially is already underway, and owners are expected to begin a lockout in December as they pursue a salary cap-and-floor system. Earlier this year, the Braves said they made 11 percent more in 2025 than they had the year prior.

“Our sport is enjoying great momentum and popularity with the fans,” McGuirk said Monday, speaking generally.

But McGuirk said little when an analyst asked how the Braves felt about a salary cap and the potential to stunt the league’s growth with a work stoppage.

“I would steer those questions to Rob Manfred, the commissioner of baseball,” McGuirk said. “We’re in pretty active discussions at his office with the Players Association, and as you know, the [collective bargaining agreement] concludes on Dec. 1 of this year and baseball will be engaging as it normally does throughout this year to culminate at that point with either a new deal or other activities. There’s been lots of discussion as to what might be included in those talks, I’m not in a position today to discuss them.”

The commissioner’s office and the MLBPA declined comment Monday.

Close to one-third of MLB teams switched television partners prior to this season because of the continued financial struggles of Main Street Sports Group, a once-powerful collection of regional sports stations that are branded with the moniker “FanDuel Sports Network.”

Rather than fully join MLB’s in-house broadcasting arm, the choice many other teams made, the Braves decided to set up their own operation, while leaning on MLB for their streaming distribution. The video company Raycom assists the Braves in production.

The team has “replicated the amount of distributors that were previously with us,” said Schiller, referring to the team’s carriage agreements with cable and satellite companies. “We built in a matter of only a few weeks what would typically take 12 to 18 months to assemble.”

But when asked how the streaming audience looks this year compared to last, Schiller didn’t share any of their numbers from MLB’s current operation of the product. He also indicated the team’s previous deal with Main Street didn’t provide adequate transparency.

“We didn’t have an exact glimpse into how many subscribers were subscribed to the product, because it was them that was managing that, so it’s a little bit difficult to look at comparisons,” Schiller said. “We’re very happy with the amount of fans that have signed up.”

But the Braves seemed to indicate that comparisons of their TV income could be difficult in the future, too.

“The timing of the cash flows will be different based on the timing of payments for the different revenue streams,” chief financial officer Jill Robinson said.

The Braves reported $188.6 million in broadcast revenue in 2025 overall, but that includes national TV money as well, in addition to the fee for local rights that Main Street paid.

When they were partnered with Main Street, the Braves received their rights fee from the network in equal installments over the first nine months of the year, Robinson said.

“The revenue and cash flow were predictable, albeit there was uncertainty, given the financial health of our partner,” Robinson said. “In the case of BravesVision, our distribution agreements commenced at the time we signed our contracts with our various distribution partners at the start of the season. Distribution revenue payments will come in on a slower cadence.

“Advertising revenue will be paid following the month when the ad airs. Direct-to-consumer payments will also be paid monthly.”

How transparent the Braves will be in the future is to be seen.

“We’re going to work over the coming months to identify the best way to report our financial results and give our investors and analysts the best way to model that going forward,” Robinson said. “We are being cautious and thoughtful around this given the early few weeks of this new business.”