Major League Baseball and ESPN have “mutually agreed” to end their national television deal after the upcoming 2025 season. Rob Manfred wrote the league has “not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.”
MLB and ESPN had a deal in place that would have run through 2028. The broadcaster informed the league of its decision to opt out on Thursday morning. MLB responded by saying they also would opt out.
The network was due to pay the league an estimated $550 million each of the next three years, which it deemed way above the current market value, according to people briefed on the network’s thinking.
“We do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform,” Manfred wrote. “In order to best position MLB to optimize our rights going in to our next deal cycle, we believe it is not prudent to devalue our rights with an existing partner but rather to have our marquee regular season games, Home Run Derby and Wild Card playoff round on a new broadcast and/or streaming platform.
“To that end, we have been in conversations with several interested parties around these rights over the past several months and expect to have at least two potential options for consideration over the next few weeks.”