Livescore
After more than three decades together, MLB games will no longer be aired on ESPN after this year.
The league and network are “mutually parting ways” after the 2025 season, according to a league memo from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred obtained by The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. The two parties were under contract that ran through 2028, but there was a March 1 deadline for either of them to opt out.
In the memo, Manfred also reportedly complains that MLB “not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.”
ESPN had reportedly been asking for MLB to take a lower rights fee than the $550 million average value on the existing deal. MLB declined, with Manfred reportedly saying he expects at least two potential options in the coming weeks.
From The Athletic:
“While ESPN has stated they would like to continue to have MLB on their platform, particularly in light of the upcoming launch of their DTC [direct-to-consumer] product, we do not think its beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform,” Manfred wrote. “In order to best position MLB to optimize our rights going in to our next deal cycle, we believe it is not prudent to devalue our rights with an existing partner but rather to have our marquee regular season games, Home Run Derby and Wild Card playoff round on a new broadcast and/or streaming platform.
“To that end, we have been in conversations with several interested parties around these rights over the past several months and expect to have at least two potential options for consideration over the next few weeks.”
ESPN released its own statement, saying it’s still open to covering MLB and throwing out the term “super-serve” in the process:
“We are grateful for our longstanding relationship with Major League Baseball and proud of how ESPN’s coverage super-serves fans. In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN’s industry-leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms. As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”
MLB and ESPN’s relationship goes back to 1990, a span of time in which “Sunday Night Baseball” has become an iconic part of the league’s broadcasting schedule. ESPN also airs the long-running “Baseball Tonight,” the Home Run Derby and various playoff games.
This corporate break-up is the latest move in transitional period in MLB broadcasting. A decade ago, the league’s television set-up was straightforward: every team had an RSN as its main financial engine, with national broadcasting deals with Fox, ESPN and TBS and the revenue from the league’s MLB.tv streaming platform lifting all boats. The main drawback: local blackouts.
The ongoing decline of cable network subscribers has thrown off the math behind those deals. Diamond Sports Group, which ran more than a dozen teams’ RSNs, went bankrupt and shed some of those deals, with some of the teams affected starting their own streaming service under the league’s guidance.
Meanwhile, MLB has reached deals with pretty much any streaming service that will pick up Manfred’s phone calls. Apple TV and The Roku Channel both have deals with MLB, with Peacock previously in the mix and Amazon Prime even getting in on some New York Yankees games.
The league very clearly sees streaming both in and out of market as the future of its business. ESPN and its parent company Disney do have their own streaming platforms, but the deal as it was currently constructed apparently wasn’t the way to do it.
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