Are you a Chicago Cubs baseball fan? You may have trouble finding the television broadcasts for the team in 2022.
Thanks to some changes in both the names of the broadcast networks that televise regional Major League Baseball games and the streaming services that carry them, more fans are confused about finding the games than ever before.
Team Clark is here to help. We have the answers to the questions you may have about watching Willson Contreras, Jason Heyward and Seiya Suzuki this season.
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What TV Channel Broadcasts the Chicago Cubs in 2022?
The Chicago Cubs baseball games air on the Marquee Sports Network.
This Cubs-centric channel debuted in 2020, but you may have missed it amid the chaotic, pandemic-shortened 60-game season that year.
To access this channel within the Cubs’ local television market, you have to subscribe to a cable, satellite or streaming service that carries the network. We’ll talk more about this later.
Some Cubs games may also be shown on national television networks such as ESPN or on exclusive streaming broadcasts from services like Apple TV+, Peacock or YouTube.
How To Stream the Chicago Cubs in Your Local TV Market
If you live within the local television market for the Chicago Cubs and want to see their games, you’ll have to subscribe to a service that carries the Marquee Sports Network.
What TV Services Offer the Local Chicago Cubs Broadcasts?
You should be able to access Marquee Sports Network through your local cable or satellite provider.
However, accessing the regional sports networks through a streaming TV service is more difficult. That’s because many of these networks do not have active contract agreements with streaming services.
DIRECTV STREAM and fuboTV currently are the only streaming TV services that offer local Chicago Cubs broadcasts. Pricing for the necessary subscription level is a steep $89.99 per month with DIRECTV STREAM, but you can get fuboTV for as low as $64.99 per month.
If you’re hoping to stream the Cubs on one of the following services, you’re out of luck. These services do not have access to the Marquee Sports Network in 2022:
- YouTube TV
- Hulu + Live TV
- Sling TV
- Philo
What Is the Local TV Market for the Chicago Cubs?
The local market for the Chicago Cubs includes portions of the following states:
- Illinois
- Wisconsin
- Indiana
- Iowa
Here’s an approximated map of local markets from Wikipedia:
Use this map for a general idea of your local TV market for baseball purposes.
The only “official” way to know your market is to check it by ZIP code.
You can do that by checking for MLB blackouts for your ZIP code (if you have a blackout restriction for a team, that means you’re in their local market):
How To Watch the Chicago Cubs Outside the Local TV Market
If you don’t live in the Chicago Cubs local television market, you probably won’t have access to the Marquee Sports Network no matter which cable, satellite or streaming service you have. (You’ll get a different regional sports network.)
So in order to watch all the Cubs games, you’ll need a subscription to either MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings.
Subscribe to MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings
MLB.TV is Major League Baseball’s subscription service that offers live streaming of all out-of-market baseball games. It costs $139.99 for a full season.
You can use this service to stream the Cubs on your favorite television device, computer, tablet or cell phone.
In addition to the live stream of the Cubs broadcasts, you’ll also get access to radio broadcasts, live scoring, and on-demand archives of every game played that season.
MLB Extra Innings is a subscription service offered by your local cable or satellite provider. It, too, will give you access to all out-of-market games. Prices vary based on market and provider.
Watch National Broadcasts of Games
If you’re not willing to pay for the MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings services, your only chance to watch the Chicago Cubs games will likely be on nationally-televised broadcasts.
These channels have regularly scheduled Major League Baseball games each week during the 2022 season:
- ESPN family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+, etc.)
- MLB Network
- FOX
- FS1
- TBS
In order to get many of these networks, you’ll need to subscribe to a cable, satellite or live streaming service.
New for 2022: Apple TV+ and Peacock have agreements with MLB for exclusive weekly baseball broadcasts. These video streaming services are $4.99 per month.
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