So, I’m a Cubs fan and want a streaming option to watch the Cubs games.

As a baseball fan in the US, you have two basic options to watch your team play: get them on a regional sports network usually available through cable or streaming TV, or, subscribe to the MLB.tv streaming package.

MLB.tv

On the face of it, MLB.tv isn’t a bad deal. For $150/year you get access to live streams and replays of all the MLB teams’ games. Oh, but there’s an asterisk: all “out of market” teams’ games. And here’s the fun: if you’re a baseball fan who lives in, oh, Eastern Iowa, there are six, count ’em, SIX MLB teams who count as “in market”. Those teams, and their relative distances from Cedar Rapids, Iowa:

  • Chicago Cubs (258 miles)
  • Chicago White Sox (255 miles)
  • Minnesota Twins (255 miles)
  • Kansas City Royals (315 miles)
  • Saint Louis Cardinals (289 miles)
  • Milwaukee Brewers (233 miles)

That’s right, for $150 per season I can get the privilege of streaming any MLB game as long as that game doesn’t include one of those six teams, notwithstanding the fact that if I want to attend one of those team’s home games I have a MINIMUM FOUR HOUR DRIVE to get there.

Other Options

So, let’s rule out MLB.tv because of their arcane blackout restrictions. The Cubs launched Marquee Network, their own cable TV / streaming channel for just Cubs content, back in 2020. So sure, it’s a regional sports network, right? It should be available on local systems and packages.

Sure, if I want to live in the dark ages and get a cable streaming package from Mediacom, I can pay them $136/month for the privilege. Given their service history around here, that’s a non-starter.

I have two streaming TV options for Marquee Network as a part of live TV streaming providers. Notably, neither of these are top-tier providers (e.g. YouTube TV, Hulu, Sling); they’re also-rans who are either overly expensive (DirectTV Streaming, $107/month) or still expensive and missing other key channels (Fubo, $95/month + “additional taxes & fees”, and doesn’t have TNT, TBS, or Food Network).

I have been a subscriber to Sling, Hulu, and YTTV at various times in the past. I’ve stuck with YTTV for the past few years for the convenience in family profiles and thanks to some package pricing with other Google-based services I subscribe to. But once again in 2025 they have no agreement with Marquee Network, so, no Cubs games that way.

So, What’s a Guy To Do?

That leaves me with really two options:

  1. Subscribe to Marquee Network’s streaming service directly. For $20/month I can watch Cubs games live (note: NOT replays, just live games). This is such an inferior option to MLB.tv it’s ludicrous. For basically the same money: ALL THE GAMES + replays (*out of market teams only) on one hand, or only Cubs live games on the other.

  2. Just don’t watch the Cubs.

Honestly, I’ll probably end up going with Option #2.

Or as an online acquaintance pointed out this morning, there’s

Option #3: pick another team to cheer for, and make sure that team is out-of-market. He was suggesting the Detroit Tigers. And, I mean, that would work. (It works for me in hockey where my team is the Dallas Stars!) But as a dude in his late 40s it might be time to play the Old Dog/New Tricks card. After 25 years invested as a Cubs fan it’s a habit that’s hard to break.

Come on, MLB, do better.