ESPN and baseball Major League (MLB) They separate each other at the end of the 2025 -year -old season, completing their partnership in media rights.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred explained the explanation behind the end of the partnership in a letter to the League owners, Athletic.
In the letter, Manfred noted that the league “was not satisfied with the minimum coverage that MLB had received on ESPN platforms in the last few years beyond the actual live coverage.”
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Commissioner of the Beyzbol League Robert D. Manfred Jr. He speaks during the Draft MLB 2024, who introduced Nike at Cowtown Coliseum on Sunday, July 14, 2024 at Fort Worth, Texas. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
For this purpose, ESPN had to pay the league estimated $ 550 million in each of the next three years, which he felt above the current market value, by athletics.
With a deadline on March 1 for Both ESPN And MLB to exclude from the last three years in the agreement, both agreed.
“We do not think it is useful to accept a smaller job to stay on the reduction platform,” Manfred wrote in a letter to the owners. “In order to best position the MLB to optimize our rights in our next job cycle, we believe that it is not prudent to devalue our rights with an existing partner, but that we have our regular games in regular seasons, the playoffs of domestic running and playback Wild Card round new platform for broadcasting and/or streaming.
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“In this goal, we have been talking from several interested parties over these rights in the last few months and we expect to have at least two potential options for consideration in the next few weeks.”
ESPN will continue to broadcast “baseball on Sunday night”, Post -season games with wild cardsand the rest of his partnership with MLB goes through the 2025 season.
The MLB has had a partnership with ESPN since 1990, and because of their many years of relationship, both are ready to work on a new agreement.
Commissioner MLB Rob Manfred before the game four since 2024 MLB World Series between Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees at the Yankee Stadium in New York, October 29, 2024. (Pictures Brad Penner-Hagn)
“In the adoption of this decision, we have applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that built the ESPN live portfolio of live events in the industry as we continue with the growth of our audience on linear, digital and social platforms,” Manfred wrote. “As we have been throughout the procedure, we remain open to explore new ways to serve MLB fans on our platforms after 2025.”
ESPN allegedly appeared with national and regional programming ideas for MLB review.
Manfred noted that ESPN had approached MLB to reduce a total of $ 550 million, stating that Apple paid $ 85 million a year for game rights, while paying only $ 10 million.
Manfredo’s argument for MLB was “Inventory involved” that ESPN is much higher compared to Apple and deadline.
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Commissioner of the Beyzbol League Robert D. Manfred Jr. He talks to the media during the spring day of the Cactus League Media in Arizona Biltmore on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 in Phoenix. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
“The ESPN contract contains the only truly exclusive windows of the regular part of the season on Sunday night, an exclusive right to the entire playoffs, and domestic Derby, one of the most exciting summer events,” Manfred wrote. “On the contrary, Apple have games that compete against the complete slate of other games that are broadcast in local markets.”
Who MLB would be a partner with if the revised contract with ESPN does not understand, it remains to be seen.
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