Last month, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said that he had hopes to resolve the league’s media rights package being abandoned by ESPN by the MLB All-Star Break. With his deadline arriving this week, Manfred still has not officially announced any new finalized details. However, there are reportedly multiple conversations with bidders ongoing.
Manfred was a guest of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN Monday and clarified what the goal of the league is when approaching its media rights deals.
“We want to sell more games nationally. We think it’s good for our exposure, more broadcast exposure, big game exposure. We also believe that the buyers that are out there are going to be national buyers, particularly the streaming companies,” said Manfred. “Secondly, we need to streamline our offering. We need to get out of the blackout business.”
Additionally, the commissioner referenced when the league officially took over the broadcast rights of the San Diego Padres in 2023 as a sign of success and demand for MLB baseball. According to Manfred, within two weeks of taking over the rights of the San Diego club, over 20,000 subscriptions were purchased to watch Padres baseball.
Furthermore, Manfred continued to explain why his goal is to streamline the ease in offering MLB baseball to fans.
“We are too many places right now,” said Manfred. “We’ve experimented. Apple’s been a great experiment, but we do have a lot of fragmentation. We need to get into a more streamlined model, where a fan knows, ‘Friday, I want to see my game tonight.’ They go to a digital service; they know the game’s there. If it’s not there, it’s going to be one of a couple of national games, and it’s easy for the fans. That’s what it needs to look like.”
When Manfred was named commissioner of baseball in August of 2014, he said the model for baseball when it came to internet delivery was very forward-thinking. Today, however, he acknowledged that the model for distribution has changed, and baseball is adapting with the times.
“We thought we could drive everything to our platforms,” said Manfred. “We got this wrong. We’re just in the wrong place. We’re trying to drive everybody here. The right strategy is to make sure we are where the people are. You got to go, where people are going. And that shift has been a really good thing for us.”
Finally, it’s worth noting that MLB and ESPN mutually opted out of their national broadcast rights agreement this past February. Nevertheless, the two sides have reportedly begun discussions about a new rights deal, with an ESPN direct-to-consumer platform launching this fall.
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