The battle for MLB rights is on. According to a report from Andrew Marchand at The Athletic, streamers are hoping to find their spot in the weekly baseball calendar.
Marchand says that NBC, parent company of Peacock, and Apple, which owns Apple TV+, are both interested in Sunday Night Baseball following the end of a 35-year long relationship between the league and ESPN. While NBC and Apple are “top contenders” for the rights, and NBC already made an offer in May, Marchand says that “no deals have been finalized” with the streamers or other potential partners.
Netflix is another streaming service that could be a part of the next baseball season. Marchand has confirmed that Netflix could be the streaming home of the Home Run Derby, now that the deal with ESPN has ended.
ESPN ended its current contract with the MLB, but is also still interested in airing games. Marchand says that the Disney-owned network is looking at weekday games and could even be interested in buying MLB.TV, the service that lets fans watch out-of-market games.
ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro has expressed interest in bringing baseball to the new ESPN app, saying “I have to be fiscally responsible and disciplined,” said Pitaro. “It does not mean that we are not interested in remaining in business with Major League Baseball. I’ve been consistent that we are still interested in national games. We’re interested in other components of our package. We’re interested in postseason, but we also are very, very interested in local, whether that’s in market or out of market.”
Before the split, which will happen after the 2025 season, ESPN was paying $550 million per season for its lineup of games which included Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and a postseason Wild Card series. The network was reportedly unhappy with how much they paid in relation to other networks and services. For comparison, Fox pays around $728 million for regular season games, playoffs, and World Series; WBD (TBS, truTV, Max) pays around $535 annually for its package; and Apple pays $85 million for Friday Night Baseball.
Current deals with Fox and TNT are set to expire after the 2028 season. Any upcoming deals are expected to have a 3-year term so that all deals will end at the same time, giving the MLB the opportunity to package and sell rights to all regular and post-season games.