Welcome to State of the Union, a weekly column covering the commissioner's office, the players' union and all the forces shaping the future of our national pastime.
MLB's media rights limbo that began when the league's relationship with ESPN dissolved earlier this year finally has its resolution, in the form of three separate TV deals that mark a sea change for the sport.
According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, NBC/Peacock will pay almost $200 million per year to be the home of Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card round of the postseason (the same package that ESPN owned previously). Netflix, meanwhile, pays $50 million per year for the prime time Opening Day game, the Home Run Derby and the "Field of Dreams" game. And for the low, low price of $550 million per year, ESPN now owns the rights to out-of-market games for all 30 teams — otherwise known as the MLB.tv package — as well as in-market games for six teams (the Mariners, D-backs, Twins, Guardians, Padres and Rockies).
What the new MLB rights deal means for fans
All three deals will run for the next three seasons, expiring at the end of 2028 — which just so happens to be when the league's other television deals, most notably for the postseason and World Series, also run out. It brings to an end several months of chaos, kicked off by ESPN's decision to opt out of the three years remaining on its rights deal back in February.
That decision put Sunday Night Baseball, the opening round of the postseason and the Home Run Derby all back up for grabs. MLB has now found short-term homes for all of them, while ensuring the ability to re-negotiate every part of its TV rights package at once after the conclusion of the 2028 season. But how should we, the fans, feel about Wednesday's news? Let's break it down.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Good: NBC taking over Sunday Night Baseball
It had become increasingly obvious in recent years that baseball was an afterthought in the ESPN portfolio, and its treatment of the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast was exhibit A: The presentation was stale, the on-air talent was less than compelling and the entire thing felt like it had been found under a couch cushion somewhere in Bristol. A breath of fresh air was badly needed for the league's premium regular-season slot, something that would treat MLB as an asset rather than an inconvenience.
The proof will be in the pudding, but it feels like this deal does exactly that. NBC's embrace of the NBA has gone swimmingly so far, with a slick presentation and substantive analysis in addition to a real investment in obtaining top-end talent. The network clearly means business as it looks to ramp up its live sports footprint, and we can bet that it'll take its reentry into baseball with the seriousness it deserves. That's good news for the league and its fans, as the national product had lagged behind the local one for far too long now.
Bad: The continued splintering of rights agreements
How many subscriptions will be enough? This is hardly a complaint limited to baseball — it's increasingly true of every major sports league, not to mention scripted programming — but it bears repeating that the average consumer is being stretched thin these days. The Sunday Night broadcasts will be on NBC proper rather than Peacock, thank goodness, but it's still yet another platform to consider.
As of today, the league now has national rights deals with [deep breath] Fox, TNT Sports, ESPN, NBC, Apple and Netflix. And who knows how many suitors might jump into the fray when the current World Series rights deal expires at the end of 2028?
Good: The future of baseball seems pretty bright
Just months ago, it seemed like Rob Manfred had boxed MLB into a corner, left scrambling to pick up the pieces of the league's media rights after ESPN exercised an opt-out clause he had insisted on during the last round of negotiations. That gaffe wound up costing nearly a full billion dollars, as these two new deals won't come even close to making up for the $1.65 billion ESPN was set to pay out for the same properties over the next three years. And Manfred's pouty response in the aftermath, essentially the corporate version of "you're not breaking up with me because I'm breaking up with you!". hardly made things better.
Luckily, though, cooler heads appear to have prevailed, and the game is back on track financially speaking. This was a banner year for baseball, both in terms of in-park attendance and in terms of ratings — look no further than the World Series numbers on FOX, which blew expectations out of the water. Now, MLB gets to ride that momentum forward, stabilizing things for the next three years and creating a situation in which it can foster quite the bidding war when all of its rights come back up for negotiation in 2028. You know, if a lockout doesn't send everything sideways before then.
Bad: Letting Netflix get involved
This feels like a mistake all the way around. For starters, Netflix has yet to earn anything remotely approaching the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its ability to handle big-time live sports — just ask football fans and boxing fans. The entire thing feels very much not ready for prime time, and beneath a league of MLB's stature.
All of which would make this a misstep even if the league were just handing Netflix some regular-season inventory. But Opening Day and the Home Run Derby? Really? What better way to sap energy at the start of the year than by telling a chunk of each team's fan base that they won't be able to watch game one of 162 without being a Netflix subscriber. And what better way to spoil the Derby — one of the few events on the baseball calendar with genuine crossover appeal, and the ability to attract folks who might not be fans just yet — than by hiding it behind a streaming service?
Good: Six teams have found a stable broadcast home
Well, "good" here should come with some qualifications. It remains to be seen just what hoops fans of the Mariners, D-backs, Twins, Guardians, Padres and Rockies will need to jump through in order to secure access to all of their team's game's next season. Sure, reports indicate that streaming for those six teams also will be on MLB platforms to start, but how long will that last? Is it just a matter of time before fans have to pay not only for their team's package, but an extra subscription fee to ESPN on top of it?
That's a real concern, one that hopefully won't wind up shafting hundreds of thousands of people around the country. But when you consider just how uncertain the future was for these teams, all of which faced uncertainty financial futures after the implosion of their local deals, ESPN swooping into the regional market might be for the best.
Of course, we could eat our words here if the Worldwide Leader decides to put virtually no thought or effort into the presentation of these games, but it's clear that they're invested in acquiring as many live rights as possible, and they should want to make a good first impression. This at least stops the bleeding for now, and ESPN has the financial might (thanks, Disney) to be a viable alternative moving forward.
Bad: Do we really trust ESPN to shepherd MLB.tv?
All of that said ... man, I really hope that ESPN doesn't manage to mess too badly with a good thing here.
Blackout concerns — some valid, others less so — aside, MLB had done an excellent job with its in-house streaming product, building up its popularity with die-hard fans to the point where a network would want to pay $550 million over the next three years just for a piece of it. Can ESPN maintain that quality? Anyone who's tried to stream something on the new ESPN app of late would tell you that the jury is very much out, especially considering that baseball still doesn't figure to be too high a priority in Bristol.
MLB.tv is a vital service for so many fans who want to watch their favorite team out-of-market, not to mention the true sickos among us (and I'm very much including myself here) who always have some game or another on in the background during the summer months. ESPN can ill-afford to let it die on the vine, but it remains to be seen whether they're willing to invest in it the way the league did.