The partnership between Major League Baseball (MLB) and ESPN will conclude after the 2025 season, marking a significant shift in MLB broadcasting. While ESPN will continue airing select events during the season, the future TV rights may open up opportunities for networks like Fox, NBC, Amazon, and Netflix. Fox is already invested heavily in MLB, but reports suggest that MLB could diversify its rights distribution among multiple platforms instead of consolidating with one entity. This evolving landscape reflects broader trends in how fans consume sports content.
While the TV contract won't continue beyond this year, ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" broadcasts will air like normal in 2025, along with the Home Run Derby.
Fox already pays roughly $729 million to MLB each year for a TV rights package that includes the regular season, annual All-Star Game, playoffs and the World Series.
MLB may very well try to split up the expiring package among multiple networks and streaming services rather than sell it all to one partner.
As for the future of those events, Fox president and chief operating officer John Nallen said the network is looking into acquiring ESPN's expiring package.
Collection
[
|
...
]