The Texas Rangers dropped Victory+ as their direct-to-consumer distributor, an unpopular decision that left viewers wondering why it happened in-season and what the heck BZZR is.
The Texas Rangers knew the howls were coming Wednesday. They did all they could to mitigate the blowback they would receive from a decision they knew would be unpopular, especially during the course of their season.
Victory+ is no longer the team’s direct-to-consumer/streaming distributor. Something called BZZR is. Not every TV will have BZZR immediately. A seamless transfer of existing accounts didn’t go all that seamlessly for some.
After being forced two years ago to make a decision on how to watch Rangers games, those who picked what was behind Door No. 2 are now pounding at Door No. 3. It swings open Friday when the Rangers resume the 2026 following the All-Star break.
Good luck, everyone.
That’s a sincere sentiment from the Rangers, who made the announcement Wednesday morning without warning. They didn’t want to make the change midflight. While there were no signs externally of the Victory+ agreement dissolving, the possibility internally became a reality as Victory+ could not fulfill its end of the bargain.
What end? The financial end, of course. The Sports Business Journal reported on some of the money woes Victory+ is having, with the Canandian company seeking more investors to stay afloat and even expand.
As bad as viewers think it is for the Rangers to make this change, it’s not nearly as bad as what would happen if Victory+ went out of business. Having been down that road previously, the Rangers’ decision was a proactive one to avoid a calamity of the Rangers having no streaming partner at all.
It’s worth noting that Rangers minority owner Neil Leibman is a partner at BZZR, but the Rangers did reach out to other potential distributors. They were interested but needed more lead time to execute the switch than BZZR.
The Rangers felt that making the change was urgent.
It wasn’t long ago that the Rangers’ TV partners, Diamond Sports Group, failed them. Diamond was unwilling to agree to distribution agreements with YouTubeTV and Hulu, leaving many Rangers fans in DFW unable to watch games for multiple seasons.
Diamond filed for bankruptcy after customers dried up as they switched from cable to streaming. Diamond, which aired Rangers games on Bally Sports Southwest, had to renogiate its deal with the Rangers and ultimately reduced 2024 payout by at least $20 million.
Rather than stay with a reorganized Diamond, under the Main Street Sports Group name and on FanDuel Sports Network, or allow Major League Baseball to produce and distribute their games, the Rangers created Rangers Sports Network.
RSN produces the vast majority of Rangers games, with the exceptions being games televised by MLB’s national partners. Victory+ simply distributed the game streams. BZZR will do the same for the rest of the season.
There are no changes to Rangers Sports Network or where it is distributed.
The Rangers understood that there would problems with the switch. BZZR does not have an app available for all TV streaming vendors, the biggest omission being Roku. The technology is there, but the agreement to carry BZZR is pending.
Fans who don’t have BZZR on their TVs will have to either watch games on their mobile devices or cast the games from their mobile devices to their TVs. For some, it’s an easy task. For others, it’s like splitting the atom.
But, yes, there is a way to watch the Rangers on BZZR on a television. It’s a pain in the butt, but, no, the Rangers did not leave Victory+ subscribers with no way to put the games on their TVs. The casting thing is expected to be temporary.
The Rangers sent emails to existing Victory+ plan holders, and their accounts will transfer to BZZR free of charge. The Rangers and BZZR lined up ample customer support and multiple ways to reach out: on the web at bzzr.com/texasrangers and texasrangers.com/tunein, by calling BZZR at (401) 903-2997, or by email at txrangers@bzzr.com.
BZZR was also responsive on its Twitter account, @BZZRofficial.
They knew blowback was coming. The Rangers didn’t make the decision easily. In a perfect world, Victory+ would have been the club’s streaming partner for the rest of this season and beyond.
But the TV/streaming climate in baseball is far from perfect. The Rangers learned that lesson with Diamond Sports Group and didn’t want to deal with another potential disaster with Victory+.
Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com
