ESPN and Major League Baseball have a framework agreement in place that would give ESPN the exclusive rights to sell out-of-market regular-season games over the next three years, according to a report from The Athletic on Thursday.
The deal would also include the rights to in-market games for five teams — the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padre and Minnesota Twins — for the next three years.
The deal is not finalized or official and likely won’t be any earlier than next month, per the report.
The financials of the deal are unknown, but expected to be “substantial,” according to the report. MLB and ESPN declined to comment to The Athletic.
ESPN would no longer have rights to its long-owned “Sunday Night Baseball,” and would move its primetime matchup to a different day of the week. ESPN would continue to broadcast about 30 regular-season games exclusively through its network, according to the report.
This comes after ESPN’s reported deal with the NFL in which ESPN would take control of NFL Network properties in exchange for 10 percent of its company.
ESPN opted out of its initial media rights deal with MLB. There were still three seasons remaining on the deal that had given ESPN the rights to “Sunday Night Baseball,” eight-to-12 first-round playoff games and the Home Run Derby at a price of $550 million per year.
If the two sides push the agreement across the finish line, it’s expected to go into effect next season.
–Field Level Media
