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“Sunday Night Baseball” on ESPN will soon come to an end.
The MLB and ESPN “mutually agreed” to part ways and end their national television deal after the 2025 season, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced in a memo obtained by The Athletic.
The MLB has had a long-standing relationship with ESPN, dating back to 1989 when they signed their first rights agreement. The two parties signed a seven-year extension in 2021 to keep baseball on the network through 2028. Under the agreement, ESPN had the exclusive rights to 30 regular-season games and the entire MLB Wild Card Series, in addition to the Home Run Derby and the Opening Night telecast. However, ESPN and MLB both had the option to terminate the final three years of the deal on or before March 1, 2025.
Manfred said the league ultimately decided to opt out of the TV deal because of “ESPN’s aggressive effort to reduce rights fees.”
“Over the past several months, ESPN has approached us with a desire to reduce the amount they pay for MLB content over the remainder of the term. Publicly and privately ESPN has pointed to lower rights fees paid by Apple and Roku in their deals with MLB,” Manfred wrote in a memo to team owners Thursday. “Given the strength of our product we do not believe a reduction in fees is warranted.”
Manfred added that the league has “not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.”
“We have had a long and mutually beneficial partnership with ESPN that dates back to its first MLB game in 1990,” MLB said in a statement. “Unfortunately in recent years, we have seen ESPN scale back their baseball coverage and investment in a way that is not consistent with the sport’s appeal or performance on their platform. Given that MLB provides strong viewership, valuable demographics, and the exclusive right to cover unique events like the Home Run Derby, ESPN’s demand to reduce rights fees is simply unacceptable. As a result, we have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement.”
ESPN confirmed they opted-out of the deal on Thursday in a statement shared on social media, pointing to “fiscal responsibility.” Although ESPN’s current deal with the MLB ends after the 2025 season, the network expressed interest in a possible reunion.
“We are grateful for our long-standing relationship with major league baseball and proud of how ESPN’s coverage super-serves fans,” the statement said. “In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN’s industry leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms. As we have been throughout the process, we were main open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”
Manfred said the league is in talks with “several interested parties” about the MLB rights up for grabs.
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