MLB Media Rights: Adjusting to the 21st Century
By Noah Massey | 21 April, 2025
In February, ESPN opted out of the final three years of its national television deal with Major League Baseball following the 2025 season. The network sought to reduce its annual rights payment of $550 million to only $200 million, a massive devaluation of baseball and its prospective benefits for the network.
ESPN’s exit from its contract was another instance of chaos regarding MLB media rights, which appears to be in a transitional period as the league adjusts to new market conditions. This change has been buoyed by alterations in national contracts amid changes in local markets, where each team has faced unique challenges while adjusting to shifting means of media consumption and where far fewer people have cable television.
Local Markets
Regional sports networks (RSNs) have been the place for many consumers to watch their local MLB team play for years. With a 162-game schedule and limited national coverage, most games wound up on these regional networks, creating a crucial amount of the network revenue. As the number of households with cable television has nearly halved – the service is only available in $60 million households, down from $100 million in 2015 – the regional sports networks have seen their revenue take a tremendous hit.
In March 2023, Diamond Sports – the parent company of multiple regional sports networks that broadcasted Major League Baseball – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to make a $140 million interest payment. While the company has since emerged from bankruptcy, multiple teams are still feeling the effects, with multiple teams renegotiating their contracts with the networks and others instead choosing to partner directly with the MLB.
The implications of the market shift have been severe, with multiple times seeing significant losses in revenue following the collapse of their local RSN. The Minnesota Twins even admitted that they would be cutting their player payroll after becoming a part of MLB local media, where revenues are expected to be much lower than their former deal as a direct-to-consumer option. Fans can choose between a monthly or yearly package, where fans within their local zone can either pay a monthly or yearly fee to watch their team.
An advertisement for Twins.TV, the only way to watch Twins games for fans in their regional zone, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and parts of Wisconsin
With the variant positions of different teams relative to their local RSNs, a tremendous disparity has emerged between different teams and the revenue they receive from their broadcasts. As games have become easier to stream for free on illegal websites and cable will almost certainly continue to lose popularity, the precarious position of local streaming will continue to grow.
The new direct-to-consumer packages employed by the MLB local media deals also create further concerns with continuing the growth of the game and revenue, as people will have to decide that watching their local team is worth paying for by itself. When it was packaged, it was far more likely that more casual consumers would flip to the channel for a little while and expose themselves to the team, thereby creating higher viewership and helping non-fans become fans. The subscription-based nature of the direct-to-consumer model in the new era of streaming could be harmful to the continued growth of baseball fandom and viewership.
National Markets
While ESPN exited its deal, multiple other national television networks will continue to broadcast MLB games. Fox, TNT, MLB Network, Apple, and Roku all have a share of the rights, with Fox holding the most valuable deal that includes 52 Saturday afternoon games, two Division Series, one League Championship Series, the All-Star Game, and the World Series. Fox pays $729 million a year for its deal, which is likely what frustrated ESPN, considering Fox was able to broadcast more games and a much larger share of the postseason than their counterparts.
Fox has held exclusive rights to the World Series since 2000
The existence of nationally televised games provides another frustrating factor for people already dealing with the high costs of purchasing subscriptions to watch their team’s games. If somebody in Minnesota wanted to watch every Twins game, they would need to pay for TWINS.TV, cable television, and Apple TV+, which could create significant costs for the average fan.
While this creates frustration for all baseball fans, who have to endure extra costs and – especially for older fans – confusion over how to access their teams games, this can also dissuade anyone looking to watch their local team for the first time. If a sports fan who normally watches other sports wants to give baseball a try, they would likely have to make a significant purchase, which is not helpful for future audience growth.
However, all of MLB’s current national rights deals will expire in 2028, leaving the door open for numerous possibilities to create an encompassing platform to broadcast the MLB and the teams without a RSN platform to stream on. MLB.TV – which the league is already looking at licensing to another platform – could also be included to broadcast all games to non-local audiences.
Looking Forward
If the MLB can sell a majority of its national and out-of-market rights to one platform – similar to how ESPN owns all non-local National Hockey League games, has exclusive rights to national broadcasts, and owns over half of the Stanley Cup Playoffs – the benefits for the league could be tremendous. Teams without an RSN could profit from the deal and the league could create exposure for itself by becoming available to other patrons of the platform, especially those in areas without RSNs as the platform could show their local teams without rights restrictions.
In an evolving world of sports with endless competition from other sports leagues, MLB needs to adapt to the realities of the streaming age to maintain its growth and expand its exposure. With cable television rapidly losing viewership and becoming a technology primarily used by older generations, the prime opportunity presented in 2028 ought to be utilized to secure a contract beneficial to MLB and its teams to set the league up for future success as it battles for market share with other high profile leagues and competition from around the world.
While numerous services will vie for the rights to broadcast MLB, especially if they were to get something close to a monopoly on nationally televised and out-of-market games, MLB would be best served by contracting with an established sports streaming service that can broadcast their games with other major sports. A dangerous pitfall could be trailblazing with a new streaming service, as shown by the MLS deal with Apple TV+, which some have speculated as helping restrict audience growth.
While the primary example of a multi-sport streaming service is ESPN+, other services such as Paramount+ and Peacock are featuring a lineup that includes other frequently-watched sports and could prove to be beneficial partners if MLB chooses to partner with a streaming service.
