ESPN and Major League Baseball agreed to a mutual opt-out of their media rights deal at the conclusion of the 2025 season, resulting in a potential forthcoming shift in the baseball media landscape. Although it reportedly remains plausible that the two entities could work out a deal, David Samson expressed earlier in the week that he did not believe this to be the case. Making an appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Samson elaborated on the situation and explained that there were some remnants of former ESPN president John Skipper as to why the league seemingly wanted to get away from the broadcast network.
“The promotion for baseball just stopped with ESPN, which, as Rob Manfred said, has become sort of a declining, decreasing platform, and so the rights deal that baseball had with ESPN had a mutual opt-out after three years of the deal, and both parties said, ‘You know what? I think we’re both going to be okay without you,’ and the proof is going to be in the pudding,” Samson said to Le Batard. “If MLB cannot sell the package that [it] had for more than $550 [million], then they lose. If they can sell it for more, then they win, and I would take the latter bet if I were you.”
Amin Elhassan, who was co-hosting this episode of the program with Le Batard, presented a hypothetical situation to Samson for consideration. Illustrating a scenario in which there were contracts being offered by a linear television network and streaming company with roughly equal monetary value, he was curious to see which one he would accept. Samson replied by stating that he would accept the linear deal but aspire for a streaming component to be included as well.
“Now you can talk about Netflix and Apple and what they’re trying to do there, but at the end of the day, let’s change it to, ‘I want to reach the most people possible,’ whatever that is, if the money’s equal,” Samson explained. “Now if I can make more money and reach fewer people, I’m going to make more money and reach fewer people.”
Samson added later in the segment that the mutual opt-out felt like a divorce that had been in the distance but that both parties had been sticking it out because of purported ambiguity in next steps. Furthermore, he believes that the league would not have made this decision if there was not another deal in hand with which it could go to the owners and exhibit how they would do better. As a whole though, Samson articulated that MLB probably thought that ESPN was not its friend, nor was it happy with them.
“Please correct me here if I’m wrong, because ESPN helped usher in a golden age of baseball on television, and as the sport shrunk and regionally, cable networks bought things up, ESPN covered baseball a lot less than they used to – a lot less well, and just with a lot fewer resources,” Le Batard responded. “What you’re talking about now, like Tim Kurkjian and a bunch of other people we care about over there have drowned under – they’re not paying very much care to baseball over at ESPN, they’re not covering it with a lot of resources.”
The seven-year media rights deal between the two entities, reported to be worth approximately $550 million per annum, took place before ESPN finalized deals with various other properties. For example, the network is preparing to begin an 11-year media rights contract with the NBA that is reportedly worth $2.62 billion per year, and it also reached a six-year extension with the College Football Playoff for a reported $1.3 billion annually. Samson believes that the company will invest more in its other properties and articulated that it is their decision and works fine.
“There’s no coincidence that FOX announced yesterday right after the ESPN-MLB breakup that FOX is leaning even more into baseball with some really cool things that they’re broadcasting and more expansive service and time and resources and money,” Samson said. “That’s not a coincidence.”
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