Months after pronouncing the relationship over, MLB is reportedly back at the negotiating table with ESPN.
ESPN and Major League Baseball have resumed discussions about a potential media rights renewal that would include “pieces” of the network’s expiring package, plus some local rights, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. The talks are characterized as being in the “early stages.”
The sides have not spoken since ESPN opted out of its current deal in February. While ESPN has maintained that it always intended to negotiate a new deal, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred took the stance that the opt-out was tantamount to the end of the relationship.
According to The Wall Street Journal, ESPN at one point offered MLB as little as $200 million/year to renew. The network’s current rights fee is believed to be $550 million/year.
ESPN and MLB have had an at-times tumutlous relationship, and the current situation is not the most serious rift. MLB terminated ESPN’s contract in 1999 over the network’s decision to bump Sunday Night Baseball to ESPN2 in favor of Sunday Night Football. That conflict ended up in the courts, and the end result was ESPN reaching a new six-year deal to continue airing MLB.
That is far from the first time MLB has had an ugly rift with a television partner, only to continue the relationship. NBC and ABC exited “The Baseball Network” in 1995, with the top executives at those networks swearing off any future relationship with MLB — but NBC struck a new deal to continue airing games the following season.
Manfred said earlier this month that he hopes to have new deals lined up by the MLB All-Star Game, which takes place in two weeks. At that time, he said that MLB was having “three different sets of conversations” about the package, an indication that the rights could be split three ways.
According to previous reporting, Comcast (NBC, Peacock) and Apple TV have been in talks about acquiring at least some part of the ESPN package. There had been some thought that the third bidder could be Fox, which expressed interest in acquiring the Home Run Derby.
