Major League Baseball announced its new TV deals with NBC, Netflix and ESPN on Wednesday, restructuring its broadcast future.
ESPN will also have in-market rights to six clubs and will have the ability to add more if they become available. The six teams are the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Twins, the Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and the Seattle Mariners.
The new agreements will give ESPN rights to out-of-market games for all 30 teams and six in-market clubs. NBC/Peacock will become the new home of the first round of the playoffs and Sunday Night Baseball, while Netflix will showcase the standalone Opening Day game in prime time, the Home Run Derby and the ‘Field of Dreams’ game.
The three-year agreements were a direct result of ESPN opting out of the final three seasons of its contract in February. ESPN was due to pay around $1.65 billion over the next three seasons, but wanted to restructure its arrangement, including Sunday Night Baseball, the first round of the playoffs and Home Run Derby.
After the opt-out, there was an acrimonious period in which MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called ESPN a “shrinking” platform in a memo to team owners. Then, a long period of negotiations led to the announcement of deals that will begin in about four months.
Sources briefed on the agreements said NBC/Peacock is expected to pay nearly $200 million per year, while Netflix will dole out $50 million per season. MLB will receive almost $750 million per year in total over the next three seasons. If ESPN hadn’t opted out, it would have paid $1.65 billion. NBC’s deal includes some ratings bonus clauses that could make the exact number fluctuate, but will not exceed $200 million, the sources said.
“We think the combination of ESPN, NBC Universal and Netflix is a great one for us,” Manfred said. “Expand our reach, we’re going to increase our partnership revenue. Given the opt-out and everything, I think it’s really important that we managed to continue a relationship with ESPN. They’ve been kind of the bedrock of our broadcast program for a long time. Two great new partners in terms of NBC and Netflix, especially excited about Sunday nights on NBC.”
The arrangement allows MLB to join the NFL and NBA on NBC’s Sunday Night franchise. When there are conflicts with football and basketball, baseball will only be on Peacock.
ESPN’s deal will be for a newly created package and will be for the same $1.65 billion over three years. Besides the out-of-market games and some in-market games, it will spread out 30 exclusive weeknight games during the season. ESPN Radio will continue to be the home of Sunday Night Baseball, the playoffs and the World Series.
The Athletic previously reported most of the details of the deals months ago, including that Netflix will have the Opening Day game between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants. Netflix will also be the home of the ‘Field of Dreams’ showcase, in which the Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins play a game in Iowa at the field where the movie was filmed. It was previously on Fox Sports.
NBC’s first game will be a standalone matchup on the second night of the season, featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will raise their World Series banner, against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The eight to 12 playoff games — whose total will be dependent on whether series are extended to a decisive third game — are expected to be split between NBC and Peacock. Peacock will also take over Roku’s late Sunday morning package.
Peacock originally was the streamer for the Sunday morning games that start at 11:30 a.m. or noon, but two years ago, MLB decided to take the games to Roku in a deal worth $10 million per season.
After the Peacock Sunday games, the platform will have an afternoon whip-around show all day. On July 5th, all 15 MLB games will be on Peacock, with one late Sunday morning game and Sunday Night Baseball also appearing on NBC that day.
MLB met with ESPN to make up for lost money in old assets and, in return, will still receive the $1.65 billion over the next three years. To do so, MLB had to relinquish its rights to MLB.TV, which is the league’s out-of-market platform for games. Platforms have coveted MLB.TV for years, but the league has refused to relinquish it until now.
ESPN has not decided how it will sell MLB.TV, but it is expected to be at the same $150 per year that subscribers paid when it was under the league’s control. For at least the first year, subscribers will still be able to continue on the MLB app. T-Mobile is expected to continue, allowing fans to receive the service for free.
Sources briefed on ESPN’s plans said the network may add a free month for its direct-to-consumer app, which provides unlimited ESPN programming and costs $30 per month. MLB.TV subscribers would be able to cancel ESPN after the first month. ESPN has yet to make a final decision on how it will price in- or out-of-market games.
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