Danielle Solzman
After rumors surfaced that either MLB or ESPN would walk away from their TV deal, it is now official that 2025 is the end of MLB on ESPN.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, the news of the breakup is not at all surprising. There have been fewer nationally televised games on ESPN as MLB sends national games to other networks and streaming services. I think the big question right now is whether they use the opt-out to discuss a new deal that takes them to 2028. The year is key because it is when a number of their other contracts are ending. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred didn’t rule out the idea. But still, it’s not out of the question for another network to rise up and take its place.
The Athletic reported the news this evening:
ESPN was asking MLB to take a lower rights fee than the $550 million average value the deal called for, a figure MLB could be hard-pressed to match elsewhere. The contract, which would have lasted seven years, was agreed to in 2021.
Did anyone predict that 2025 would turn into a landmark year in televised sports? Sports fans entered the year knowing it would be the final year of the NBA on TNT. TNT is losing the NBA to NBC, which previously lost the NBA to ESPN/ABC after the 2002 season. I don’t know if TNT will make another go at it when the rights are up for negotiation again. ESPN Sunday Night Baseball has been an active part of MLB on ESPN since the 1990 season.
Both MLB and ESPN definitely have a clear difference of opinion. I can see where ESPN is coming from, but at the same time, they are paying for more exclusivity. What follows are excerpts from Commissioner Rob Manfred’s letter to MLB owners:
Over the past several months, ESPN has approached us with a desire to reduce the amount they pay for MLB content over the remainder of the term. Publicly and privately ESPN has pointed to lower rights fees paid by Apple and Roku in their deals with MLB. We believe arguments based on the Apple and Roku deals are inapt and we have rejected ESPN’s aggressive effort to reduce rights fees for several reasons.
First, the inventory involved in the Apple and Roku deals is very different from the ESPN inventory. The ESPN deal contains the only truly exclusive regular season windows on Sunday nights, the exclusive right to an entire round of playoffs, and the Home Run Derby, one of the most exciting events of the summer. In contrast, Apple and Roku have games that compete against a complete slate of other games broadcast in local markets. In fact, in the last round of bargaining with ESPN, they declined to purchase the inventory we subsequently sold to Apple and Roku.
Neither Roku nor Apple have any playoff games. Back in the day, the Home Run Derby coverage would precede the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game. The ESPN broadcast of the softball game ended a few years ago. It was on Peacock briefly and now it’s only available on MLB.com, the MLB app, and maybe some other MLB channels. The All-Star Futures Game airs on MLB Network. Lest we forget that MLB Network is now home to the signature baseball programming. Baseball Tonight used to broadcast nightly during the season on ESPN. Nowadays, it’s nothing more than a glorified preview show of that night’s ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. As Manfred notes, the broadcast was up 6% in 2024. He really sends it home in the following paragraphs:
Third, we do not believe that Pay TV, ESPN’s primary distribution platform, is the future of video distribution or the best platform for our content. As of December 2024, ESPN was available in 53.6M homes, down from its peak of over 100M homes in 2011 and 69M homes when we struck the current deal in 2021.
Furthermore, we have 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.
Based on the foregoing, we and ESPN have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement. 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 product, we do not think its beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform. 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.
I used to watch Baseball Tonight all the time. But sadly, the program is currently a shadow of the show it once was. I’m curious to see if the opt-out leads to the nail in the coffin. If that’s the case, it’s certainly a shame. I think this speaks to MLB Network building up its programming. Baseball Tonight‘s last Sports Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Studio Show – Daily came in 2009. Since that time, MLB Tonight has 7 wins and 5 nominations. To say that MLB Tonight is now the signature show for baseball studio coverage is not an understatement. Now we wait to see who takes over the current ESPN package and if they’ll get more games.
ESPN Sunday Night Baseball returns on March 30, 2025.
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