Rangers should address fans reported season long issues with streaming partner

The Texas Rangers are closing in on their first official season as full owners of their television rights and its subsequent broadcast channel, Rangers Sports Network (RSN).

Officially introduced in January, RSN then had it's first broadcast during a spring training game between the Rangers and Cincinatti Reds on March 12. It then officially debut on March 27 for the 2025 season opener against the Boston Red Sox.

Alongside RSN, the Rangers partnered the streaming service Victory+ to bring in-market, on-demand streaming of all the locally broadcasted regular season contests. What is heralded as a win for accessibility, still had a few bumps in the road with consistent streaming issues that upset fans time and time again.

Victory+, Rangers partnership was not smooth sailing in inaugural season

A lot of what angered Rangers' fans in years past was the ever-changing landscape of locally broadcasted games that continually made it hard to see their favorite baseball team without paying multiple montly streaming fees and dodging television blackouts.

What Texas was hoping the introduction of RSN, local over the air Friday broadcasts and Victory+ would keep pushing toward answering blackout questions and allow more people to see more games.

However, what followed was a lot of inconsistencies and streaming app crashes in the first year of the Victory+ deal. Rightfully so fans weren't happy about paying $100+ for the year, log in to the app to watch the Rangers and get hit with error messages, buffering issues or blackouts.

I understand that technical difficulties exist and we aren't going to pretend they don't happen but with the consistent upsetting of fans with streaming issues, the Rangers need to figure it out.

What are Rangers streaming options moving foward?

It's 100% sticking with Victory+ but it will cause the Rangers to go back to the drawing board and tackle the complaints and issues.

In a first year of something new it off course will have downsides and unsure what to do. There is still a lot of potential with Victory+ and it helps that Dallas's hockey team, the Stars also uses the service to stream their games.

Things do of course need to be addressed and a better product needs to be built. If not, the Rangers need to completely shift and find another solution for in-market streaming.