Major League Baseball and ESPN have had quite the mercurial relationship this year when it comes to the topic of their TV rights contract.
It began in February, when the two sides mutually agreed to end their partnership that began in 1990. There reportedly was a March 1 deadline for both sides to opt out of the final three years of a broadcast agreement that extended through the 2028 season. The contract has been in place since 2021.
As a result, MLB has worked to find a new broadcasting partner willing to take on ESPN’s TV rights. It was reported earlier this year that multiple networks and streaming services were interested in picking up some of that package, including ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” games, the Wild Card Series and Home Run Derby.
Interested parties were said to be Fox Sports and NBC, with the latter even making an offer.
However, ESPN and MLB resumed their negotiations for a TV rights deal back in July and have reportedly made good progress since. The reworked deal would mark a pretty significant shift from their current agreement, according to Andrew Marchand of the Athletic:
Major League Baseball and ESPN have a framework agreement that would give the network the exclusive rights to sell all out-of-market regular-season games digitally and in-market games for five clubs over the next three years, sources briefed on the discussions told The Athletic.
ESPN would continue to broadcast around 30 regular-season games, but not “Sunday Night Baseball.” ESPN would move to a different night during the week. The games on the network would remain exclusive, meaning viewers would only be able to watch these matchups through ESPN. The agreement would begin next season.
A new agreement between MLB and ESPN could also signal changes for MLB.TV users:
Under the framework of an agreement between MLB and ESPN, ESPN would have MLB.TV as part of its direct-to-consumer offering. It is not fully clear yet if out-of-market subscribers who pay for the package through cable or other linear subscription would still be able to receive MLB.TV that way.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred previously stated his hope was for a new deal to be finalized by the All-Star Game in July, which didn’t end up materializing. Manfred more recently offered a timeline of having a resolution in place within the next few weeks.
Even if MLB picks another partner to broadcast primary events, such as Peacock (NBC) or Apple TV+, the league seems to want to keep ESPN involved in some fashion.
MLB broadcast negotiations ongoing
While MLB and ESPN have had resumed negotiations for some time, other networks and streaming entities are also in the running, namely Apple, Amazon, Fox and NBC.
Talks between MLB and potential broadcasting partners are ongoing, and Netflix has become involved as well. It’s believed they would become the likely home to stream the Home Run Derby.
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