The saga of ESPN’s expiring MLB rights package involves four contenders — and perhaps more — vying for different pieces of the pie.
MLB is in active negotiations with ESPN, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, Apple and Netflix on the expiring ESPN rights package, and it is possible that other platforms could enter the mix, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Thursday. Though Marchand did not state as much, the details of the report leave open the possibility that MLB could reach deals with all four companies.
The expiring $550 million/year package, which includes “Sunday Night Baseball,” the Wild Card round, Home Run Derby and a handful of weekday games (including Opening Day), has been on the market since ESPN opted out of the final three years of its deal in February. Any deals MLB eventually reaches will be for those remaining seasons only, bringing the expiration in line with those of the league’s deals with Fox and TNT Sports.
According to Marchand, Apple and NBCUniversal are believed to be “the final contenders” for “Sunday Night Baseball” and the Wild Card round. Netflix, as reported by Bloomberg last week, is eyeing the Home Run Derby. While the loss of those three properties would seem to leave incumbent ESPN with nothing, Marchand reported Thursday that ESPN is “after a new set of rights” that would include weekday and local games.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro has repeatedly stated his network’s interest in local MLB rights, including in a podcast interview with Bryan Curtis of The Ringer three days ago. According to Marchand, ESPN is interested in MLB.tv, which the league was reported earlier this year to be willing to include in negotiations.
Depending on the size of a potential weekday package, ESPN could for all intents and purposes exit the national MLB business. “Sunday Night Baseball” has for nearly 40 years been a cornerstone of the network’s lineup and this season is averaging its largest audience since 2017. A move to NBCU would create a year-round run of Sunday night programming with “Sunday Night Football” in the fall, “Sunday Night Basketball” in the spring and “Sunday Night Baseball” in the summer.
For Apple, the acquisition of “Sunday Night Baseball” would presumably give the streamer two weekend nights of exclusive game inventory to go along with the company’s Friday night games.
According to Marchand, it is possible that MLB could split Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card games. In that scenario, one imagines NBC would get the Sunday night games; it would defy logic for NBC to acquire the three-day Wild Card round with no other MLB inventory. An Apple package that includes Friday night games and the Wild Card round also seems more in line with the streamer’s strategy than one that includes three games and two nights a week all season long.
In the event that MLB sells Sunday Night Baseball to NBCU, the Wild Card playoffs to Apple, the Home Run Derby to Netflix, and a new package of weeknight and local games to ESPN, the league would seem to have at least some chance of cobbling together a combined rights fee that approaches what ESPN is currently paying.
It would also give the league a whopping seven national rights partners entering the expiration of its media rights deals in 2028.
