ESPN and Major League Baseball's partnership will end early, after the 2025 season, amid rising licensing fees and decreasing baseball coverage by ESPN. Both sides expressed blame, with ESPN citing financial strain and MLB pointing to ESPN's diminishing interest in broadcasting baseball games. The situation leaves uncertainty about future coverage, with fears it could lead to no nationally-televised baseball for the first time since 1990. Critics highlight ESPN's subpar baseball coverage in recent years and suggest that this split may not be beneficial for the sport overall.
Thursday night may have marked the beginning of the end of an era. That evening, ESPN and Major League Baseball announced that the pair had jointly decided to end their television agreement after the conclusion of the 2025 season - a full three years early.
ESPN believed that their $550 million in licensing fees were too expensive and MLB pointed to the fact that ESPN has been reducing its baseball coverage pretty much every year.
While Evan Drellich of The Athletic noted the possibility of the two sides coming together on a new agreement, there's a very real chance that, starting in 2026, there will be no nationally-televised baseball games on baseball for the first time since 1990.
Despite my misgivings about ESPN in general, I cannot help but see the MLB/ESPN divorce as anything but a bad thing for the game of baseball.
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