YES eyes Opening Day to go direct-to-consumer

YES Network is still hoping to have a direct-to-consumer Yankees product by Opening Day on Thursday, The Post has learned.

If YES DTC can’t launch by Thursday’s Yankees-Giants first pitch, then the plan is to have it ready shortly after with the expectation for it to be available by sometime in April at the latest.

“Nothing has changed,” a YES spokesman told The Post.

The spokesman was referencing a Post Sports+ report on Jan. 30 that stated YES hoped to have its DTC offering by Opening Day.

A DTC product would allow fans to bypass a subscription to cable or satellite television and access all of the 125-128 games that are on YES.

The DTC subscription would only be available in the YES market, which includes parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Fans would still need a separate subscription for Amazon Prime Video’s 20 Yankees games, which are moving from mostly Fridays to Wednesdays this season.

ESPN, which requires a cable subscription, has six exclusive Yankees games per year, while eight others appear on Fox.

Fox is a free broadcast channel.

As for the pricing, that is not yet known, but NESN charged $30 per month for its DTC offering last season and included eight tickets to a home game.

In its pricing, YES will probably try to satisfy its cable and satellite partners, as the service will go unchanged for those who have YES through those outlets.

This week, YES could announce its official plans. If not, it should do so shortly after.

When it does, it will beat MSG Network as the first New York RSN to go DTC.

MSG Network plans to have a DTC product launching this summer for access to its Knicks and Rangers games.

SNY has no official plans for a direct-to-consumer product, but sources have indicated next season could be in play.