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ESPN and Major League Baseball have both agreed to opt-out of the final 3 years of their TV deal in a stunning announcement on Thursday night.
The sports network and league will no longer be partners following the 2025 season.
According to Evan Drellich, MLB wrote the following in a statement to its owners: “We do not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform.”
ESPN also issued a statement in the aftermath of Thursday’s announcement that read:
We are grateful for our longstanding relationship with Major League Baseball and proud of how ESPN’s coverages super-serves fans. In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN’s industry-leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms. As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.
The current deal was for 7 years and worth $550 million annually, and it featured Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and playoff wild-card games. But Apple and Roku have since negotiated slimmer packages for less cash.
MLB did not want to renegotiate the deal, and the league felt that ESPN wasn’t doing enough to promote baseball on its platforms.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
