If the latest reporting is to be believed, the year-long game of MLB musical chairs could end up with Apple unexpectedly losing its rights three years early.
NBCUniversal is in line to acquire both ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” and Apple TV’s package of Friday night games, according to Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports. There have been no previous indications that Apple could be lose its MLB package, which was reported by Mike Ozanian of Forbes to be for seven years when it was struck in 2022 — meaning that it is not set to expire until 2028.
Apple did have an opt-out in its deal, per that Ozanian report, but only “after the first or second year” — which has since passed. 9 to 5 Mac, one of multiple sites that covers Apple in-depth, reported Tuesday that “Apple is believed to have the latitude in the contract to get out earlier” than 2028, though there were no specifics given.
Short of NBC reaching a deal with Apple to take over the final three years of the streamer’s $85 million/year contract, it is not entirely clear how it could acquire the Friday package. But if the report is accurate, NBC would own rights to two exclusive nights of MLB per week, more than any of the incumbent broadcasters — a commitment that far exceeds NBC’s two previous MLB deals, a two-year 2022 contract for Sunday morning games on Peacock and a 1996 deal that was limited to the playoffs and All-Star Game.
Any NBC deal would further beef up the network’s growing sports inventory. The network that shed rights to the NFL, MLB and NBA in a five-year span from 1998-2002 could become the only major sports entity to own national rights to all three, depending on whether ESPN retains a small package of MLB games, as Andrew Marchand suggested last week. NBC would join ESPN as the only major sports divisions with U.S. rights to three of the “Big Four” leagues. (Prime Video would actually qualify if one included Canada, as it owns NHL rights north of the border by way of a sublicensing deal with Rogers SportsNet.)
Per Baker, the rest of the rights deal would shake out as broadly expected. ESPN would acquire MLB.tv — a move that has been foreshadowed in recent reporting and would achieve the network’s long-stated goal of acquiring local MLB rights — and Netflix would get the Home Run Derby. The rights deals, Baker said, are “close to being done.”
