Yesterday, the Marquee Sports Network announced their long-awaited direct-to-consumer subscription offering, providing in-market fans the opportunity to stream live Cubs games and other Marquee programming without having some sort of a cable or satellite service. The monthly subscription is $19.99 per month, with subscriptions available through the website and a new app.  The subscriptions are only available within the defined Cubs market, as out-of-market viewers will continue to use MLB.tv to watch the games.

As more consumers move away from traditional cable or satellite subscriptions and teams see their RSN partners go into bankruptcy and stop making their promised payments, app-based subscriptions look like the future for delivering baseball (and all sports, really) to its fans.  The only question is if that comes piecemeal, with each team coming up with their own product tied to their legacy RSN partners, or whether MLB.tv expands to include an in-market option, at additional cost.  How this eventually plays out is anyone’s guess.