Chicago Cubs fans will have more direct-to-consumer streaming options to watch games this year.
Marquee Sports Network has reached an agreement to expand its DTC footprint through two notable streaming services.
Starting Wednesday, Marquee is available for Hulu + Live TV subscribers. Additionally, Marquee can be streamed live on Amazon’s Prime Video through a monthly subscription ($19.99) that will include Cubs games, pregame and postgame coverage and all other Marquee programming. Both DTC options are for in-market Cubs fans.
“We’re committed to delivering world-class game broadcasts to our fans through our linear channel and our direct-to-consumer product,” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said in a statement. “By expanding our streaming distribution, we’re providing more ways than ever to follow the Cubs all season long.”
In January, Kenney told the Tribune the Cubs have more than 100,000 direct subscribers to Marquee since launching their DTC streaming option three years ago.
“It’s changing, and it’s changed because the number of cable subscribers has fallen off a cliff,” Kenney said. “We’re in the same boat as everyone else. Fortunately, Marquee stands alone, so we have to make smart decisions on how we spend our money. We made some decisions recently that were difficult. We’ll continue to make decisions sometimes that will be difficult.”
Within the last six months, those difficult decisions saw Marquee essentially shutter its digital online product after laying off multiple employees, shift to predominantly emphasizing its Cubs game production and air fewer spring training games this year. Marquee ultimately selected 11 Cactus League games to broadcast.
“A really hard decision, but it seemed like it made the most sense to us in terms of, like any budget, where do you want to cut and what do you want to emphasize?” Kenney said. “So we’re going to emphasize the pre, the post and the games with the same technology, same talent, to give our fans the very best games. And we made that decision on spring training, we’re going to do fewer.”