The Los Angeles Angels finally got their TV broadcast situation figured out, with the team announcing details for their new television network yesterday, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. The network will still be called FanDuel Sports Network West, and the first broadcast will take place on March 22 when the Angels play the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The decision to retain the FanDuel name is odd given the instability that caused this change in the first place, but the good news here is that the on-air talent will be the same.
Angels fans have come to value the high-quality work of play-by-play announcer Wayne Randazzo, color commentator Mark Gubicza and reporter/studio host Erica Weston, and hopefully that quality will be maintained in the technical details behind the broadcast booth.
The Angels elected not to partner with MLB to produce the broadcasts, which makes sense since the team keeps more money in an independent arrangement. This move is one of several different approaches by small-market teams, which were left high and dry this offseason after Main Street Sports, the owner of the FanDuel property, missed multiple payments to several teams.
The network won’t just be offering baseball, however. Multi-sport options are a part of this arrangement, with Los Angeles Kings broadcasts also included for both the rest of this season and next year, including the first round of the playoffs if the Kings qualify, according to Bollinger.
“Bringing this regional sports network under our umbrella allows us to strengthen fan access to both teams,” said Angels president John Carpino, who is set to be replaced by Molly Jolly on April 6. “This opportunity provides a seamless transition for viewers while continuing to offer the same high-quality broadcasts they have come to expect.”
The specific channels on different cable systems will also remain the same, Bollinger added, listing channels for DirecTV, Spectrum and Cox. The Angels also announced their own streaming service, which will be partnered with MLB via Angels.TV. This arrangement began back on Feb. 10, and it will now continue going forward.
Unfortunately, Angels fans will have to go through the usual scramble to find certain games on other outlets as MLB continues to try and diversify its offerings. The outlets include ESPN, Apple TV, FS1 and NBC’s Peacocks, and those games start in late April. That scramble will be mostly an inconvenience, however, compared to what might have happened if this situation wasn’t fixed and finalized.