Update [7:47 p.m. ET]: Yahoo Sports’ Kendall Baker, who issued the original report on Tuesday evening, subsequently explained that “nothing is finalized” and the deals, while “close,” could be subject to change. This post has been updated to include Baker’s new comments.
After weeks of anticipation, it seems that Major League Baseball is reportedly closing in on its new-look media rights deals resulting from ESPN’s decision to exit its current contract after this season.
According to a report by Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports, MLB is “close to being done” its new set of media rights deals that are expected to go through 2028, when the league’s national broadcast agreements expire with Fox and TNT Sports. Per Baker, Apple is completely exiting its current deal for Friday Night Baseball, making way for NBC and Peacock to pickup the Friday inventory in addition to Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card games that ESPN opted out of.
However, ESPN isn’t getting out of the baseball business entirely. According to Baker, the Worldwide Leader will purchase MLB.tv, the league’s out-of-market streaming service, presumably to complement its own soon-to-launch streaming service. ESPN has indicated its intention to remain involved in MLB, preferably through some sort of local rights agreement, and this acquisition fits the bill.
In addition, Baker also reports that Netflix, as expected based on prior reporting, will pickup the Home Run Derby, which was also part of ESPN’s original deal.
After this post was published, Baker further explained that “nothing is finalized” about the deals, meaning they remain subject to change.
If all of these moves are, in fact, true, this would be a seismic shift for MLB’s national media rights. NBC would have itself a year-round Sunday night sports package between Sunday Night Football, Sunday Night Basketball, and Sunday Night Baseball. Apple would officially wave the white flag on its MLB package. ESPN would get some of what it wants regarding local baseball rights. And Netflix would be able to add another “event” to its live sports portfolio.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.