ESPN’s new Major League Baseball rights deal could be significantly cheaper.
ESPN and MLB are in discussions on a seven-year, $550 million/year media rights deal, The Athletic reported Friday, both shorter and cheaper than the company’s expiring eight year, $700 million/year contract. The New York Post was first to report that ESPN would pay less in its next deal.
The reduction in years and rights fees flies in sharp contrast to MLB’s other media rights deals with Fox and Turner Sports — eight-year contracts worth around 40 percent more than the current agreements. The Fox deal was announced in November 2018 and the Turner deal in July.
Combined, Major League Baseball would still earn more in rights fees when all three deals begin in 2022 than it currently does — $1.75 billion per year, up 13% from the current level of $1.55 million. By comparison, the current set of deals that began in 2014 more-than-doubled the previous 2007 contracts ($755M/year).
As previously reported, ESPN’s shorter, cheaper rights deal would also come with less inventory. ESPN would keep Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and some postseason games, but drop its regular, non-exclusive Monday and Wednesday night games. Per Sports Business Daily, MLB has been having a difficult time shopping those Monday and Wednesday games to other outlets.
It is not clear that the events of the past year have contributed to baseball’s situation. ESPN’s interest in reducing its MLB inventory was first reported early last year — before the wave of cancellations and postponements in March that shook the industry. According to the aforementioned Sports Business Daily report, ESPN’s position on MLB is the same now as when talks began prior to sports going dark.
Perhaps in the alternate reality where there was no challenge to the sporting economy, ESPN would have been willing to pay more in its next deal — as is customary — even with less inventory. Conversely, it is also possible that the networks are tired of sharing expensive game inventory, crisis or no. Even the NFL is reportedly seeing little interest in its Thursday Night Football package, which the broadcast networks have to share with NFL Network and streaming partner Amazon.
[News from The Athletic 1.8]
