MLB reportedly closing in on media rights deals with ESPN, Netflix, NBC

ESPN and Major League Baseball just can’t quit one another.

Months after the two sides agreed to opt out of the seven-year, $550 million annual deal that began in 2021, they are reportedly about to agree on a new one.

According to Isabella Simonetti and Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal, ESPN and MLB are in advanced talks for a three-year deal worth $550 million per year ($1.65 billion total). However, it looks a little different from the previous arrangement.

As previously reported by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, MLB’s MLB.tv streaming service would be incorporated into ESPN’s streaming service, which debuted this week at $29.99 a month.

Per the WSJ’s sources, the deal would include some local, in-market rights (Cleveland, San Diego, Minnesota, Arizona, and Colorado’s rights are all currently under league control) and the ability to include MLB Network in ESPN’s streamer. ESPN would also get a national package of games that would be available on both linear and its app.

“The local rights are where the true value lies, not national packages like Sunday Night Baseball, which ESPN decided to drop following this season,” wrote Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner earlier this week. “Baseball is a regional sport. Fans follow the 162 games that their team plays, but don’t tune in for much else until the postseason. So why pay hundreds of millions of dollars for national games that don’t provide a great return on investment? That’s seemingly the calculation that ESPN made earlier this year.”

The prior arrangement between ESPN and MLB, which would have run through 2028, included 30 regular-season games per season as well as the Home Run Derby and Wild Card playoff round. Now, this reported deal will shift the focus towards the addition of broadcasting rights that benefit their streaming service, while presumably letting go of some of the Derby and Sunday Night Baseball.

Those two things are reportedly heading to Netflix and NBC Sports, according to CNBC’s Alex Sherman.

“Under the terms currently being discussed, NBC would acquire all of the league’s Sunday games and Wild Card playoff games for about $200 million per year, according to people familiar with the matter,” wrote Sherman. “Netflix will get the rights to the Home Run Derby for about $50 million a year, according to two people familiar with the deal.”

WSJ reported that the Home Run Derby deal with Netflix would be “more than $35 million per year.”

MLB’s current deal for Friday Night Baseball with Apple TV+ is also up in 2028, and there have been conflicting reports about whether or not that will continue.

So now we wait for the official announcement. In the meantime, check out Drew’s write-up about why these deals make sense for MLB, ESPN, Netflix, and NBC in the most recent edition of The A Block newsletter.