ESPN has reduced its Major League Baseball inventory to Sunday Night Baseball, a potential expanded Wild Card round and little else.
ESPN announced Thursday that it has reached a new, seven-year media rights deal with Major League Baseball through the 2028 season that will include just 30 regular season games per year. The regular season slate, all exclusive, includes 25 Sunday Night Baseball games and just five others — including an Opening Night game.
The deal includes exclusive rights to an expanded MLB Wild Card round should that ever come to fruition. When MLB expanded the Wild Card round on a one-time basis last season, ESPN carried seven of the eight series.
Should MLB elect not to expand the Wild Card round, ESPN would continue airing one of two Wild Card games and get eight additional regular season windows in return. In addition to the regular season and postseason, ESPN will continue carrying the MLB Home Run Derby.
According to Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s deal is worth around $560 million/year, a reduction from the network’s current $700 million/year rights fee. The reduction in rights fees and game inventory had been anticipated for months. MLB will still make more in its new media deals than under the current contracts, with Fox and Turner Sports — which previously announced seven-year extensions — increasing their rights fees substantially.
ESPN’s MLB deal effectively marks the end of regular weekday baseball on the network. Most of those weeknight games either co-existed with RSN coverage in participating markets or were blacked out entirely. Per SBJ, MLB is shopping around those weeknight rights and a deal with a digital media company could be announced in the coming weeks. In addition, Turner’s new deal includes a regular Tuesday night slate starting next season.
Assuming an expanded Wild Card round, the number of regular season baseball games on ESPN’s linear networks will only slightly exceed the number of NHL games it will air in its new contract with that league (25).
Unlike ESPN’s NHL deal, ESPN+ will not have any exclusive MLB rights — though it will have the ability to simulcast games that air on the linear ESPN networks. The streaming platform will continue to carry one out-of-market game on most days of the regular season. It will have rights to air new studio and highlight shows. ESPN’s linear networks will also have expanded highlight rights.
While it is unlikely that ESPN will be shifting away from the linear cable bundle by 2028, the deal provides “flexibility to maximize the current and potential future distribution of ESPN.”
