Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred at Waldorf Astoria on February 10, 2022 in Orlando, Florida ) answer questions at a meeting held. Manfred talked about the ongoing player lockdown, and the owners arrived after the league’s collective bargaining agreement ended on December 1, 2021.
Julio Aguilar | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
After the 2025 season, ESPN and Major League Baseball will no longer be partners as both parties agree to choose each other on Thursday’s broadcast contract.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred sent a memo to the club that was obtained by the Athletics, confirming that ESPN requires the league to “reduce for the rest of the semester (ESPN) Pay the fee for MLB content”. Their current deals are worth $550 million a year for seven years and host Sunday night baseball, home run derby and universal card games. However, Apple and Luku have negotiated smaller game packaging for less cash since.
Major League Baseball doesn’t want to renegotiate, and the league believes ESPN’s performance is not enough to promote baseball on its platform.
“In addition, we are not satisfied with the minimum coverage MLB has received on the ESPN platform in the past few years beyond the actual live game coverage outside the past few years,” Manfred wrote.
“Although ESPN said they want to continue to have MLB on the platform, especially given the upcoming DTC product, we think it is not beneficial for us to accept smaller deals to stay on the shrinking platform. To make the best position MLB optimized We are right to enter the next trading cycle and we believe that depreciating our rights with existing partners is not a prudent approach to a new broadcast and/or streaming platform.”
ESPN released a statement Thursday night confirming the mutually chosen exit.
“We thank our long-term relationship with Major League Baseball and are proud of ESPN’s coverage super-serving fans,” the statement said. “In making this decision, we adopted the same discipline and financial responsibility, which responsibility is the responsibility.” Established an ESPN industry-leading portfolio of live events as we continue to develop our audiences on linear, digital and social platforms. Explore new ways to serve MLB fans on our platform beyond 2025.”
Another major broadcast partner on MLB’s online TV is Fox. Comcast (NBC) and Paramount (CBS) may be interested in working with the league, while Amazon and Netflix may join Apple and Roku as Manfred Eyes is the bigger streaming package for 2028.
