Major League Baseball, ESPN nearing deal involving MLB.TV and in-market rights for five teams
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Major League Baseball and ESPN are seemingly going to continue their relationship but with a new shape.
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reports that the league and the network have an agreement in place which would give ESPN the right to sell all out-of-market games digitally.
🚨NEWS: MLB & ESPN have an agreement to make the network the exclusive home of out-of-market games for all teams and in-market for five clubs, The Athletic has learned.
These rights have previously been sold by the league to consumers as the MLB.TV package. Under the agreement, ESPN will also acquire the in-market rights for the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, Rockies and Twins.
ESPN would also have an exclusive weekly game similar to Sunday Night Baseball, but on a different night of the week.
The deal is not yet finalized but could be signed in September. It's unclear how much ESPN would pay the league for this package but Marchand says it will be «substantial».
MLB and ESPN have an existing contract but it is about to expire.
The deal previously ran through 2028 but both sides agreed to opt out after the 2025 season.
Under that deal, ESPN still has the rights to Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Those rights are open for 2026 and beyond.
A week ago, Marchand reported that those rights would likely be split up and sold to multiple companies, with Netflix being the favorite for the Derby while NBC/Peacock and Apple TV+ are each trying to get the other components. He echoes that framing in today's reporting.
The new developments today are potentially seismic. MLB.TV has existed in essentially the same format since 2002.
Baseball fans purchase the product through the league and get access to every MLB game, with some exceptions for local blackouts and other games guaranteed to be exclusives for certain broadcasters.
If this deal goes through, it's not exactly clear how it would impact existing MLB.TV consumers but Marchand writes they would likely have to get an ESPN subscription on top of an MLB.TV subscription.
It's unclear how this would impact those who purchase MLB.TV through cable or other linear subscription.
Source: MLBTR
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