Kansas City Royals center fielder Kyle Isbel (28) is doused by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) and catcher Salvador Perez (13) after hitting a two-run homer in the home opener against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium on Monday, March 30, 2026, in Kansas City.
When the NFL put a playoff game on a streaming service for the first time in 2024, the league chose the Chiefs-Dolphins contest for Peacock.
Netflix began broadcasting Christmas Day games, and the Chiefs were selected for that, too.
When Amazon Prime took over “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts, it requested a Chiefs game.
All those streaming services showed those Chiefs games to the nation, but fans in Kansas City had another option. The NFL requires that a local over-the-air channel show games that are on cable or a streaming service.
Major League Baseball should do the same.
The Royals will play the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night and the game will only be available to watch on Apple TV. It’s one of four games this season that will be shown exclusively on Apple TV. Four more will be on Peacock.
Ten Royals games that will be simulcast on KCTV (Ch. 5) or KSMO (Ch. 62) this season. It begs the question: Why can’t (or won’t) Major League Baseball and the Royals simulcast those Peacock and Apple TV games on local TV, whether it’s KCTV or another channel?
This seems like an easy solution that would make games more accessible for Royals fans, and that should be a goal for MLB.
KSMO’s schedule for Friday night shows a “Chicago Fire” rerun and a St. Louis Blues hockey game. Preempting that for the Royals would be welcome in Kanas City, I would think.
The Apple TV and Peacock broadcasts look different from what fans see on Royals.TV and the announcers wouldn’t have a KC slant. But that should be no issue for viewers.
And the streaming services should have no reason to complain, because Royals fans aren’t buying Peacock or Apple TV for just four games. But fans deserve to see those games in Kansas City.
Let’s hope MLB and the Royals make this change in the future.
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 9:46 AM.
The Kansas City Star
From covering the World Series to the World Cup, Pete Grathoff has done a little bit of everything since joining The Kansas City Star in 1997.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
