Four Months After Announcing Their Breakup, ESPN and MLB Are Back at the Negotiating Table
When Major League Baseball and ESPN mutually agreed to end their four-decade partnership in February, it looked like this season would be the final hoorah for baseball on The Worldwide Leader in Sports.
In a memo to league owners, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred accused ESPN of an “aggressive effort” to lower its rights fees. The network, he said, was using the league’s recent deals with Apple and Roku to support their case, even though ESPN has been given an exclusive window for decades.
Photo: KRON4
After laying out the financial situation, Mandred tore into ESPN’s business model, arguing that the network’s focus on streaming was antagonistic to the league’s long-term interests.
Manfred Torched ESPN
Continuing on, Manfred bluntly stated that the league did “not believe Pay TV, ESPN’s primary distribution platform, is the future of video distribution or the best platform for our content.”
Photo: Major League Baseball
Ultimately, he wrote, ESPN wanted the league to accept a smaller deal on a shrinking platform. As a parting shot, Manfred lambasted ESPN for their poor MLB coverage.
Photo: MLB
Closing his memo, he vowed to explore other options.
Negotiations Have Resumed
Four months after the scorched-earth letter to owners, the MLB and ESPN are back at the negotiating table.
Photo: ESPN
According to a report from The Athletic, the talks are in early stages and include parts of the original deal as well as regional rights.
MLV.TV Could Be the Key
For ESPN, the goal would likely be to acquire the rights to MLB.TV, which carries all out-of-market games. Such an agreement would instantly boost the desirability of the forthcoming ESPN streaming app for baseball fans.
For MLB, it could be a way to capitalize on a product that has failed to generate the kind of subscription numbers the league had hoped for.
Photo: Major League Baseball
Despite their differences, both parties may be better together than they are apart.
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