It appears that ESPN put a shockingly low valuation on its Major League Baseball inventory.
The network, which recently opted out of the final three years of its contract with MLB, reportedly sought to cut its rights payment to the league by $350 million — from $550 million to just $200 million — if MLB wanted ESPN to keep airing games. The dramatic discrepancy was first reported by Jared Diamond and Isabella Simonetti of the Wall Street Journal on Sunday night.
Under the current agreement which began in 2022, ESPN owns the broadcast rights for Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and Wild Card games. The price tag of that package became a point of contention between the network and league after MLB went to market with other national packages, like Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV and MLB Sunday Leadoff on Roku for $85 million and $10 million per year respectively. Those packages are significantly cheaper than ESPN’s, but are not fully exclusive and generally air lower quality games.
Still, the value that ESPN was getting for its package compared to its peers at Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, both of whom receive much better playoff inventory while paying a similar price, added to the contention.
Should ESPN have begun paying just $200 million for MLB games, the network would be paying less for the league than what it pays annually for NHL games ($400 million) and its UFC package ($300 million), and only marginally more than what it pays for the Spanish soccer league, La Liga ($175 million).
A rate of $200 million per year would’ve been the lowest rights fee that ESPN paid the league since its 1999 deal, which averaged $133 million per year, according to Sports Media Watch.
Recent reporting by John Ourand of Puck indicates that Netflix, Amazon, and NBC are all potential destinations for MLB’s unclaimed inventory. Whether the league’s new partner (or partners) will pay closer to the $550 million or $200 million mark remains to be seen.
Manfred and Co. are certainly betting that they can get closer to the $550 million figure.
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