With ESPN’s current deal with the MLB coming to an end, there’s been a lot of talk about which platforms will get rights to air and stream baseball next season. Accord to Yahoo Sports’ Kendall Baker, rights deals are “close to being done.”
In a post on X Tuesday, Baker shared information from a source about a list of MLB deals that are close to being finalized. That list includes the end of a relationship with Apple TV+, NBC and Peacock signing on for Friday and Sunday games and a Wild Card game, Netflix getting the Home Run Derby, and ESPN acquiring MLB.TV.
Those deals are mostly in line with a report from Andrew Marchand at The Athletic last week. Marchand reported that NBC was interested in Sunday Night Baseball, verifying what we knew about NBC making an offer in May. Marchand also said that Netflix was showing interest in the Home Run Derby.
Back in April, we shared notes from an interview with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro by Sports Business Journal, which included plans for ESPN to continue covering baseball on the new EPSN app, even after the deal between the network and the league ended.
“I have to be fiscally responsible and disciplined,” Pitaro said in the interview. “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.”
Pitaro also stated that “everything is on the table,” including MLB.TV. Now, four months later, we might see that deal come to life, just in time for the launch of the new ESPN app this Thursday, August 21.