ESPN has broadcast MLB games for the last 35 years, known for its feature Sunday Night Baseball exclusive, and recently has carried wild-card round postseason games, as it will again this year.
Last February, ESPN announced that it was opting out of the three years remaining
on its deal with Major League Baseball, even while the league and the network expressed interest in a continuing relationship.Now, we have the framework of such a relationship, and other changes coming to nationally televised
baseball. Yes, it’s going to be more fragmented. Yes, it’s going to cost you more. (Hint: Neither of those things is going to be good for you, the baseball fan.)
Here are the basics of the deal from Andrew Marchand at The Athletic:
Major League Baseball and ESPN have a framework agreement that would give the network the exclusive rights to sell all out-of-market regular-season games digitally and in-market games for five clubs over the next three years, sources briefed on the discussions told The Athletic.
ESPN would continue to broadcast around 30 regular-season games, but not “Sunday Night Baseball.” ESPN would move to a different night during the week. The games on the network would remain exclusive, meaning viewers would only be able to watch these matchups through ESPN. The agreement would begin next season.
The deal is not yet signed, and its full completion is not expected until September. The exact amount that ESPN will pay is not known, but it is substantial.
(According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, ESPN will be paying about $550 million per year — which is basically equal to the deal they opted out of in February.)
Here’s the key to the deal, per Marchand:
Under the framework of an agreement between MLB and ESPN, ESPN would have MLB.TV as part of its direct-to-consumer offering. It is not fully clear yet if out-of-market subscribers who pay for the package through cable or other linear subscription would still be able to receive MLB.TV that way.
For digital consumers, fans are likely to need an ESPN direct-to-consumer subscription to go along with MLB.TV. The overall new pricing for MLB.TV is not yet decided, but is expected to be similar or slightly cheaper than the current $29.99 per month rate.
Ah, ha. So in addition to paying for MLB.TV — which cost about $150 for this season — you’d have to pony up for ESPN’s DTC app. As Marchand says, the overall pricing isn’t clear yet but I don’t see any way it will be cheaper, or even equal, to what it is now. True, you do get a large number of other sports events with ESPN’s new app, but what if you don’t care about those and only want baseball? And what if you live outside the Cubs market territory and need MLB.TV to watch the Cubs? Would you pay extra for the ESPN app?
Also, over the last few years there have been a number of free deals for MLB.TV. T-Mobile subscribers have received free MLB.TV with their service, a real nice perk. Season-ticket holders for many teams, including the Cubs, also get MLB.TV as part of their packages. It’s unclear whether such things will continue, or whether MLB Extra Innings, the MLB.TV equivalent for cable/satellite subscribers, will continue to be available.
Further, per Marchand:
If the deal is signed, ESPN will have the full rights to in- and out-of-market games for five teams. The Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies are the clubs under MLB control. Fans would likely need to subscribe to ESPN either directly or through an operator, and then, for an added price, they would be able to receive their local teams’ games.
Commissioner Rob Manfred has made no secret of his desire to have local and national rights packaged together. He thinks — and he could be right — that having all those rights together up for bid might bring more money to MLB’s coffers. But just try to get teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets and yes, the Cubs to give up their local rights and RSNs they have an ownership interest in. For now, those five teams will be the only ones whose local rights are part of this new ESPN deal.
Now, what about Sunday Night Baseball, which has been on ESPN since 1990? Per Marchand:
Netflix remains the heavy favorite to pick up the Home Run Derby for the next three years, while NBC and Apple are considered the top landing spots for “Sunday Night Baseball” and the first round playoff games..
I could see SNB moving to streaming on Peacock, if not Apple. As noted above, ESPN would still have a weekly exclusive game, just not on Sunday night. As far as having the Home Run Derby on Netflix, well, perhaps many of you already subscribe to Netflix. I do not, and I’m not going to subscribe just so I can watch a three-hour event once a year.
As Marchand notes, all of these deals, whenever finalized, are expected to run for three years so that their expiration would coincide with the expiration of MLB’s TV deals with Fox and TBS. The league thinks that having all these rights up for bid at once would bring in more money. They could be right.
What this is going to do, clearly, is cost you more. You’ll have to have at least one additional subscription, to ESPN, and possibly two others (NBC/Peacock and Netflix) to watch games that have previously been on cable/satellite or broadcast channels. It’s definitely not fan- or consumer-friendly, but this is the way MLB has been trending in recent years — just take as much money as possible.
As always, we await developments.
