For much of Twins Territory, watching games just got a lot easier.

Beginning in 2025, the Twins will have their television broadcasts produced and distributed by Major League Baseball. As a result of that, there will be continued availability on cable and satellite as well as a direct-to-consumer streaming option that will eliminate blackouts.

“Today is a good day. It’s an exciting day for the organization, but more importantly, for our fans and for our partners,” team president and CEO Dave St. Peter said. “It will propel us into the future with a direct-to-consumer streaming option that our fans have been desperately asking for. Long overdue, but we think today is a good day that moves us forward in a meaningful way.”

The announcement comes after the Twins’ one-year deal with Diamond Sports Group, which runs Bally Sports North, ran out following the end of the season. While St. Peter said they considered going to MLB last season, they instead signed a one-year deal with their long-time partners for one final season.

Now, he said, the time is right for the move — MLB created this platform during the 2023 season and, given time to experiment with it, the model has been refined and “the platform that we’ll be on in 2025 will be better than where they were when they launched it,” St. Peter said — and doing it earlier in the offseason helps them provide more clarity for their fans around how to watch games after the process dragged out throughout last winter.

While St. Peter said they expect to take a step back “in terms of local revenues related to television,” he said he believes that over time, there is “way more upside than there is concern about the short-term downside.”

“I think that’s a reality,” St. Peter said. “We also understand that the expansion of reach and what that will do for our fanbase and ultimately, over time, starting to build that direct-to-consumer foundation, which clearly is the future of the way our games will be distributed, that it’s time to get on with that, and we’re excited about that.”

Per MLB, in 2023, the Twins reached approximately 1.08 million homes. Next season, they’re expected to expand their reach to approximately 4.40 million homes.

It’s a huge expansion after multiple years in which large swaths of fans were unable to watch games on streaming services like YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and even Comcast for part of the 2024 season.

St. Peter said he was not yet sure how much the direct-to-consumer streaming service will cost, but this year, MLB produced three teams’ games — the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres — and the price was $99.99 for the full season or $19.99 per month. It’s expected to be priced similarly for the upcoming season.

For fans who have cable or satellite, the Twins will have a channel to watch. It won’t be a 24/7 Regional Sports Network but St. Peter expects the channel to have live games, replays of games and some pre- and post-game content.

Television play-by-play announcer Cory Provus is expected to return, as well as Justin Morneau and other analysts as the Twins make the move with an eye toward the future.

“It will bring, in our view, an enhanced production of Twins baseball, of innovation and new features that I think will make an already excellent television production team led by Cory Provus and Justin Morneau and others and make them even better,” St. Peter said. “We can’t wait to get started on working with Major League Baseball and our partners to bring this to life.”