Cardinals' direct-to-fans streaming option will cost about $20 monthly, $190 yearly

The Cardinals’ local telecasts will be sold directly to fans for the first time this season and some of the pricing structure has been set.

Viewers in the team’s television territory will be able to purchase the productions via streaming, either monthly for $19.99 or yearly (12 months) for $189.99. Pricing for a plan in the middle, the full baseball season, has not yet been unveiled.

The packages will be sold through FanDuel Sports Network, which remains the Cardinals’ regional telecaster under a restructured deal as it emerges from bankruptcy, and encompasses additional programming that includes Blues games.

The telecasts will still be available on many cable, satellite and video streaming providers. But several of the major ones still don’t carry FDSN (such as Dish Network, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV and Altice), which contributed to the Cardinals’ decision to begin offering games via direct purchase. Previously, a subscription to a programming distributor that carried the channel was required to stream the telecasts.

“Having a streaming option will provide those people with an alternative,” Anuk Karunaratne, the team’s senior vice president of business operations, has said. “We have a very strong regional fan base” that encompasses many states. “... There are people in our footprint, particularly in parts of our market outside metro St. Louis, that we think (will) really appreciate the ability to stream those games.”

Outside the team’s broadcast territory, the telecasts can be purchased via MLB.tv.

On the air

Although the plan is for Chip Caray to do the play-by-play for all of FanDuel Sports Network’s regular-season Cardinals telecasts this season, FDSN is set to use three people in that role for its Cards spring training telecasts. Caray will rotate with Tom Ackerman, who has called a handful of midseason games over the past two years, and Alexa Datt — whose normal role is as a studio host or reporter on many of the productions.

Mark Sweeney, who was added to the broadcast team last year primarily as a studio-based analyst, is expected to have a significant presence as a game commentator this season following the departure of Jim Edmonds. Sweeney, a former Cardinals player, is scheduled to work one exhibition game with each of the three spring play-by-play broadcasters, starting with Ackerman on March 4.

KMOX (1120 AM), the flagship station of the team’s radio network, will have 15 games beginning with the spring opener — at 12:10 p.m. Feb. 22, against Miami. John Rooney, Ricky Horton and Mike Claiborne return as the club’s radio broadcast team.

Both exhibition contests on opening weekend of the spring also will be carried on WIJR (880 AM) and the rest of the club’s Spanish-language stations, with Polo Ascencio and Bengie Molina on the calls.

Zanaboni, Pujols in booth

City SC soccer radio play-by-play broadcaster Joey Zanaboni has made his way to Dubai to call games this weekend between the Arabia Wolves and Mid East Falcons, teams from the Gulf Cooperation Council region of the Middle East. The contests are being conducted by Baseball United, a company promoting growth of the sport in the Middle East and India. Former big leaguers Robinson Cano, Didi Gregorius, Pablo Sandoval and Alejandro de Aza are on the rosters for the event.

Zanaboni called some games there in November, but this time, he’ll be working with analyst Albert Pujols — the former Cardinals standout — and is thrilled for that opportunity.

“It means the world,” he said. “Watching him growing up meant watching the greatest of his generation. I have many memories of being at Busch Stadium and seeing him do the impossible on a regular basis. It was his grace, his class, his integrity and his leadership that made him the best Cardinal of this century. Now he is working to spread the game around the world. I can’t wait to work together in Dubai.”

The games will be shown in the U.S. on MLB.tv and begin at 9:30 a.m. (St. Louis time) on Friday and Saturday, then at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. More coverage information can be found on the Baseball United website.

It’s part of a busy stretch for Zanaboni. Soon after the final game there, he makes the approximately 7,500-mile flight to St. Louis to be back in time for City SC’s opener a week from Saturday.