Baseball fans will see a huge shift next season after the MLB and ESPN have agreed to go their separate ways after 35 years. The split is said to be mutual as ESPN currently pays $550 million per season for its MLB package which includes Sunday Night Baseball and a Wild Card series in the postseason.
The split will come after the 2025 season, but the point of contention comes with MLB not being happy with ESPN’s coverage of the sport when compared to the NFL and NBA. ESPN is reportedly dissatisfied with the disparity of value it pays compared to the league’s other partners, per The Athletic:
- Fox pays around $728 million for regular season games, playoffs, and World Series.
- WBD (TBS, truTV, Max) pays around $535 annually for its package.
- Apple secured Friday Night Baseball doubleheaders for approximately $85 million per year in 2022.
- Roku’s MLB Sunday Leadoff package averages around $10 million per season.
ESPN and the MLB could renegotiate on a new deal that is fair for each side, so a reunion is not completely out of the question. For the MLB, finding a suitor willing to pay over half a billion could prove challenging. It isn’t out of the question as it could package multiple deals as baseball is reportedly exploring a huge streaming shift in 2028.
Here’s a breakdown of a few possible scenarios.
Expanding Current Partnerships
With ESPN opting out after the 2025 season, baseball could shift its focus on strengthening its agreement with its other four media partners. Selling a package of games to Fox, WBD, and streamers like Roku and Apple could fill the void from ESPN and ESPN+.
Strengthening Streamers
Apple TV is already the home of MLS Season Pass and adding more MLB content could make it a major player for sports watchers as far as streaming services go. Since the Apple TV app is now more widely available after expanding to Android devices, that move attracts a wider audience of over a billion devices. Of its current partners, adding more baseball games to Apple TV+ could pay off the most as the service looks to continue to grow with its new exposure.
The Roku Channel has the largest viewership of all free ad-supported television services and is currently home to the MLB Sunday Leadoff package. The FAST platform reaches a reported 145 million viewers, so expanding its partnership with Roku would make baseball games more available for fans instead of being behind the paywall of ESPN. Since Roku currently only pays around $10 million per season for its current package, like Apple, the expansion of rights would have to be drastic for the MLB to recoup the lost revenue from ESPN.
Renewing the Tradition
After the dissolution of its relationship with ESPN, the MLB’s traditional TV partners Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (TBS, truTV, Max) could add more games to their broadcast lineup. The MLB’s relationship with Fox dates back to 1996 and the network has had exclusive rights to the World Series since 2000. Fox plans to launch a standalone streaming service later this year and if it adds more MLB games to it next season, that could influence more subscribers to sign up for it. Fox also has its own FAST platform in Tubi which shattered streaming records during Super Bowl LIX. For life post-ESPN and pre-2028, baseball could hit a home run with a rights package for Fox that includes streaming on its standalone app and Tubi.
As for WBD, TBS has been home to the MLB in some form or fashion since 1973. Back then as WTBS in Atlanta, the Braves called The Superstation home, but the network became a national partner for the league in 2007. Since then, the MLB has aired each season including the League Championship as well. Over the past year, WBD has shifted truTV into a sports network where alternate broadcasts of MLB games air. Working a deal out with the league and adding games ESPN opted out of would give TBS more content and strengthen Max in which games simulcast.
America’s Pastime, Airing on Past Places
Over the past century, the MLB has had several homes for its broadcast and after leaving the Walt Disney Company, it could reunite with two of the other Big Four networks. CBS and NBC have each aired MLB games but haven’t as much since the turn of the century. However, with their streaming platforms Paramount+ and Peacock, adding baseball could entice more subscribers for each service.
Broadcast TV & Their Streamers
CBS hasn’t aired a single at-bat or homerun of an MLB game this millennium. The network aired MLB games from 1947–1951, 1955–1996, and 1990–1993. For its sports coverage, the network airs the PGA Tour, NFL, college football and basketball, and the UEFA Champions League among others, but adding MLB to its lineup strengthens its schedule during the summer. UEFA and since 2019 the WNBA are the highlights of the summer for CBS Sports and adding MLB games could help the network attract more subs to Paramount+.
Like CBS, NBC is available in nearly 97% of households in the US and many can watch for free with an antenna. The network aired MLB games from 1947–1989 and 1996–2000, and Peacock was the original home of MLB Sunday Leadoff for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Over the years, its sister-network USA Network aired baseball games from 1979-1983.
Parent company NBCUniversal is spinning off its linear cable channels, including USA, however, it continues to bolster Peacock with sports. Peacock is currently home to the NFL, PGA Tour, NASCAR, and WWE Network in the United States, and beginning next season the NBA. MLB could look to rekindle a rights package with NBC to put its games back on network TV and focus on its streaming strategy by utilizing Peacock.
The MLB has aired games on other digital media platforms such as Facebook (2017–2019), Twitter (2017–2018), and YouTube (2019–2022), and could reunite with them as well. These platforms would be ideal for MLB’s strategy of putting the games in the hands of fans, and they have the money to offer the league a lucrative rights package.
New Players At-Bat
The two elephants in the room that would fit MLB’s streaming strategy like a catcher’s glove are Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. On a local level, Prime Video’s relationship with MLB includes viewers being able to watch in-market games with a click of a button. Out-of-market games on MLB.TV can be added to any Prime subscription, and additionally, the New York Yankees air games in their region on the platform.
Zooming out, on a national level, Prime Video is becoming a major player in the sports arena. The NFL, NASCAR, WNBA, Premier Boxing, NWSL, and beginning next season the NBA will all call the platform home. With over 200 million viewers per month and a market cap of over two trillion dollars, Prime Video has the viewership and finances to make a game-changing offer for MLB. If Amazon thinks the package of games that ESPN left on the table is worth it, they could slide into home plate and prevent streaming competitor Apple Sports lineup from expanding.
For Netflix, ESPN’s loss could be a profitable gain. ESPN is reportedly opting out of its contract with F1 at the season’s end and NBC and Netflix are in talks with the racing league. With Netflix reportedly looking to become the new home of Sunday afternoon NFL games, the streaming behemoth seems to be going all-in on sports. It streamed its first NFL games this past Christmas, now airs WWE Raw on Monday nights, and has been successful streaming live events. If MLB shops around a package of games at the right price, Netflix could look to improve its live lineup with an international sport and add to its 300 million paid subscribers.
The media landscape continues to change and there are plenty of options to choose from if baseball and ESPN do not renegotiate on a new deal. MLB commissioner Rob Manfield cannot afford to strike out on securing a new media partner(s) in the upcoming months. With reports of the NFL possibly shopping an international package of games, the football league is reportedly looking for more than a billion in rights fees which is double what ESPN was paying the MLB. As rights fees continue to rise, MLB has to ensure it gets the most value for its product even if it has to package its rights with multiple partners above and beyond.
