MLB ends TV deal with ESPN
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Major League Baseball and ESPN have mutually decided to end their broadcasting contract covering the 2026-2028 seasons.
Barring a negotiation, 2025 will be the last season of ESPN baseball.
The Athletic's Evan Drelich and Andrew Marchand were the first to report the story.
The main dispute stems from rights and licensing agreements. Under the current contract, ESPN would have paid $550MM annually had it not triggered an opt-out.
Conversely, Apple pays $85MM for its pair of Friday night games, while the Roku channel pays $10MM for its Sunday morning games.
With streaming services increasingly investing in live sports, terrestrial channels find it harder to maintain revenue.
Still, the network has been affected by budget cuts and commissioner Rob Manfred has not been pleased with MLB's minimal coverage.
Given that MLB provides strong viewership, valuable demographics, and the exclusive right to cover unique events like the Home Run Derby, ESPN's demand to reduce rights fees is simply unacceptable. As a result, we have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement. [I do] not think it's beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform.
For their part, ESPN has released their own statement.
The latest deal was negotiated in 2021.
