Major League Baseball is not wasting any time in searching for a new media rights agreement following the mutual opt-out between MLB and ESPN last week. According to John Ourand of Puck, MLB has already begun early discussions with streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, as well as traditional cable provider Comcast, regarding its media rights.
The current agreement with ESPN is set to expire at the conclusion of the 2025 MLB season. This leaves MLB with the task of determining who will take over a package that includes the weekly Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, MLB Wild Card rounds, and the Home Run Derby. However, Ourand reports that these discussions are not necessarily focused on 2026 but are instead looking ahead to 2028, when all media rights agreements will be up for negotiation.
Last week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sent a note to team owners explaining that ESPN was seeking to reduce its current $550 million annual expenditure on MLB rights. ESPN cited the league’s existing deals with streaming platforms such as Apple and Roku as justification for this request. Manfred also expressed MLB’s dissatisfaction with the “minimal” coverage baseball has received on ESPN’s platforms in recent years outside of game broadcasts, as well as the network’s declining subscriber base.
Among the platforms mentioned in the report regarding MLB, Amazon Prime Video already offers locally produced MLB games through partnerships with Main Street Sports Group (MSSG), which currently operates the FanDuel Sports Network’s regional sports channels. Additionally, Amazon Prime has an existing agreement with the YES Network, which recently announced a 21-game broadcast slate on Prime Video.
Comcast, meanwhile, owns several regional sports networks that carry MLB games. Netflix, despite its increasing investment in live sports—including its recent 10-year agreement with WWE for Monday Night Raw and its broadcasts of NFL Christmas games—does not currently carry any MLB content.
According to the report, FOX Sports has also shown interest in acquiring a portion of ESPN’s current deal, specifically the Home Run Derby. Since FOX already owns the broadcast rights to the annual MLB All-Star Game, adding the Home Run Derby could create a two-day marquee event for the network starting in 2026.
As for ESPN, it will kick off its 2025 slate of MLB broadcasts on March 27 with a doubleheader featuring the Milwaukee Brewers taking on the New York Yankees, followed by the Detroit Tigers facing the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
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