Yankees TV Frustration

by Paul Semendinger

March 25, 2026

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The Yankees 2026 season begins tonight, and yet many fans who have be waiting for a new season all winter long, won't be able to watch the game because it is being aired on a streaming service.

This really is an outrage - one that shows the true contempt the Yankees and Major League Baseball have for the fans. In short, so long as someone pays them large amounts of money, they couldn't care less about the fans.

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We will see this dynamic play out again after the season when the labor strife comes to a head. The talk right now is that the powers that be are only too willing to take the game away from the fans.

The people running the game of baseball are doing many things to destroy the game and take the joy out of it for so many.

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I have made this next point before, many times, but it bears repeating.

Very few people today know who boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the World is. I certainly do not.

That sport took the game away from its fans.

I used to love boxing, but I lost track of the sport because I had no idea where to even watch the fights. Were they on Pay-Per-View? Were they on HBO? Maybe Showtime? It got ridiculous.

The leaders of the sport chased the big money and made the sport one that is basically irrelevant today.

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I just took a look at the Yankees schedule for 2026. Based on the calendar on their own website, Yankees games will be aired on the following channels/services: Netflix, YES, FOX, TBS, Amazon Prime, MLB, Apple TV, ESPN, FS1, ABC, NBC, and Peacock. There may be others. That list is just through June.

Realistically, how is the common fan supposed to keep track of all of that? Many fans will simply do something else rather than try to find a game among that many different possible places where it might air. And often times those fans won't be able to see the game because it will on a pay-to-watch service.

In 2026, almost every single Wednesday night Yankees game seems to be on a streaming service. If there is a fan who wishes to watch the Yankees on a Wednesday, he won't be able to unless he pays extra for that "privilege." I, for one, won't be paying.

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All of this is a short-term strategy to bring in huge dollars at the expense of building the sport and creating future interest.

I won't be surprised if one day in the not-too-distant future people Major League Baseball goes the way of boxing. First take games away from the fans. Next take the games they can see and scatter them on so many different platforms that the common fan doesn't even know where to find them.

To add insult to injury, after all that, they seem determined to shut the sport down in a labor dispute.

If someone suggested, even a year or two ago, that the Yankees' first game of the season would be aired on a pay channel or streaming service, they would have been told that was impossible, "There is no way they would do that."

But they did.