Where does Detroit Tigers TV deal stand for 2026 season as uncertainty continues?

For Detroit Tigers fans, the question isn’t whether they’ll be able to watch their team in 2026. It’s who will be responsible for making that happen — and what it says about the direction of the franchise.

With the Washington Nationals becoming the seventh club to move under Major League Baseball’s in-house broadcasting umbrella, the industry is staring down a reality that would’ve sounded absurd just a few years ago: by next season, as many as half of MLB’s teams could be produced, distributed and monetized directly by the league.

The Tigers are right in the middle of that storm. Detroit was one of nine MLB teams whose 2026 television contracts with Main Street Sports Group — the company behind FanDuel Sports Network — were voided last week after missed rights-fee payments.

The Tigers now face a fork in the road: return to a restructured, risk-laden deal with Main Street, or join the growing list of clubs that hand their broadcasts over to MLB itself. Neither option is clean. Both carry philosophical weight.

Main Street is offering a new model — smaller guarantees, revenue-sharing components, and in some cases delayed payments. Those offers are contingent on the company finding a buyer. If that doesn’t happen quickly, Main Street has warned partners it may simply wind down after the NBA and NHL seasons conclude.

Spring training games begin in just over a month. That’s the clock Detroit is staring at.

Tigers at a crossroads amid 2026 TV broadcast drama

For decades, regional sports networks were the bedrock of team revenue stability. A fixed annual rights fee — often tens of millions — gave clubs predictable income and allowed them to budget years in advance. That system is collapsing in real time. What replaces it will reshape how teams think about everything from payroll planning to fan access.

MLB’s in-house model offers certainty in one way and risk in another. The league guarantees production and distribution, but revenue becomes variable. Instead of a fixed check, teams earn whatever the league and local market can generate through carriage deals, streaming packages and advertising.

That’s a radically different financial posture for a mid-market club like Detroit –– and that’s where the unease sets in.

The Tigers are in the middle of a rebuild that is finally turning into something tangible. The young core is real. The division is winnable. The window is opening. The last thing this moment needs is a new layer of financial ambiguity hovering over the organization.

Broadcast revenue doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It affects payroll flexibility. It affects long-term planning. It affects how aggressively a front office can operate when the team is one piece away. It affects whether ownership feels empowered — or constrained — when the time comes to supplement the core. That’s why this decision matters far beyond television.

Detroit could choose stability in the short term by returning to Main Street, betting that a sale materializes and that the reworked model holds. Or it could choose structural change by joining MLB’s umbrella, accepting revenue variability in exchange for control, transparency and long-term alignment with where the sport is heading.

Neither path is painless. But only one acknowledges the reality that the old system is gone.

The Tigers have spent a decade trying to find their footing again — on the field, in the front office, in the eyes of their fanbase. This moment is another test of direction. Not just “how do we air games,” but “what kind of organization are we becoming?”

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has promised that “fans are going to have the games.” And he's right. The product will exist. The question for Detroit is what kind of future they want attached to it.