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ESPN, MLB Opt Out Of TV Deal For 2026-28

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Major League Baseball and ESPN each opted out of their broadcasting contract covering the 2026-28 seasons. Barring a renegotiation, the upcoming season will be the final year of their partnership. Evan Drellich and Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported the news before either MLB or ESPN announced it.

MLB released a statement reading in part:

“We have had a long and mutually beneficial partnership with ESPN that dates back to its first MLB game in 1990. Unfortunately in recent years, we have seen ESPN scale back their baseball coverage and investment in a way that is not consistent with the sport’s appeal or performance on their platform.

Given that MLB provides strong viewership, valuable demographics, and the exclusive right to cover unique events like the Home Run Derby, ESPN’s demand to reduce rights fees is simply unacceptable. As a result, we have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement. … The positive energy around the sport has also led to significant interest from both traditional media companies and streaming services who would like to obtain rights to MLB games. We will be exploring those opportunities for a new agreement which would start in the 2026 season following the conclusion of ESPN’s agreement at the end of this year.”

ESPN said in a statement of its own that it “applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN’s industry-leading live events portfolio. … As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”

Clearly, the contract’s collapse stems from a disagreement on rights fees. Drellich and Marchand write that ESPN would have paid roughly $550MM annually had it not triggered an opt-out by March 1. The broadcast company sought to renegotiate, pointing to the much lower fees paid by Apple and Roku on its own deals. Apple pays $85MM annually for a pair of Friday night games that are carried on Apple TV+. Roku is paying $10MM per season for the right to broadcast one game on Sunday mornings.

ESPN’s television package was much more robust. The network carried the Sunday night game each week of the regular season (the only game in that time slot), the Home Run Derby, and the Wild Card round of the playoffs. That’s far more valuable than Apple’s pair of non-exclusive Friday night games or Roku’s Sunday morning slot. It’s not clear how far ESPN wanted to cut fees on a new deal, but that wasn’t of interest to the league.

Drellich and Marchand relay a memo that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent to the league’s owners explaining the decision. In addition to differentiating between ESPN’s package and those of Apple and Roku, Manfred wrote that MLB has “not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.” The commissioner wrote that he did “not think it’s beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform.”

Manfred indicated that MLB has begun discussions with other platforms. ESPN had carried Sunday Night Baseball since 1990 and the Home Run Derby since ’93. The current contract was negotiated in 2021.

Rangers Announce Creation Of Rangers Sports Network

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The Rangers announced the formation of the Rangers Sports Network, a club-affiliated entity that will handle the team’s broadcasting deals. It’s the culmination of the franchise’s months-long effort to create its own network after its broadcasting deal with Diamond Sports Group (now operating as Main Street Sports) expired at the end of the 2024 season.

“One of the main goals when seeking solutions for Rangers television broadcasts was to give fans more access to our games,” Rangers owner Ray Davis said in a press release. “We determined that the best path toward providing our fans with more options is to handle many of the broadcast obligations in-house.

By forming Rangers Sports Network to address the various production responsibilities for team broadcasts and content, we feel the entity is in a strong position to deliver for Rangers fans as well as execute other potential broadcast opportunities in the future,” Davis added.

By creating their own network, the Rangers can negotiate contracts with different cable and streaming providers to handle in-market broadcasting. They’ve already negotiated one such streaming partnership with Victory+, the platform that also has a streaming deal with the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars. The Rangers plan to announce additional deals with cable and broadcast television providers in the coming days.

Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that those various forthcoming contracts are expected to expand access to nearly every household within the club’s broadcasting territory — which includes not just all of Texas but most of Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas. Grant notes that only a fraction of households could access Rangers games on Diamond’s Bally Sports Southwest, a result of Diamond’s inability to reach distribution agreements with a number of carriers.

The Rangers took a different path than every other team that had previously contracted with Diamond. Most clubs renegotiated one-year deals with the rebranded Main Street Sports at a slightly lesser fee. A few others turned broadcasting rights to Major League Baseball, which will make those teams’ games available in-market on MLB.tv.

Rangers Reach Streaming Deal With Victory+ For 2025

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The Rangers are planning to announce a streaming agreement for the 2025 season, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The team is set to join Victory+, the provider which also carries the NHL’s Stars. While Stars games are available on the service for free, consumers will need to pay an annual subscription fee to access Rangers contests, Grant writes. Pricing has not been reported.

The organization has been without an in-market broadcasting plan since the end of last season. Its contract with Diamond Sports Group (now known as Main Street Sports), the corporation operating the Bally Sports regional networks, expired at the end of the year. With the company facing questions about its long-term viability even after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Rangers haven’t had interest in negotiating a new agreement. That’s in contrast to the majority of teams that had previously contracted with Main Street Sports. All others have either renegotiated a deal with the regional sports network — presumably for a lesser rights fee — or handed distribution over to Major League Baseball.

Grant suggests this is likely to be the first of multiple steps to expand distribution of Rangers games within the local market. The Dallas Morning-News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have each previously written that the team hopes to essentially build its own RSN by directly negotiating individual deals with various streaming and/or cable providers.

The model could leave the Rangers with some uncertainty about their local broadcast revenues. The team’s contract with Diamond Sports Group reportedly paid around $111MM through 2023. Texas agreed to a lesser fee — reportedly around $90MM — on a restructured deal to stay on Bally Sports Southwest for the ’24 season. It’s not clear how much they anticipate making off their partnership with Victory+ or any additional agreements they may reach in the next two months.

Reds, FanDuel Sports Network Reach New Broadcast Deal

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The Reds announced this morning that they’ve reached agreement with Main Street Sports to handle their in-market local broadcasts for 2025 (link via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). Main Street Sports is the new name for the broadcast company formerly known as Diamond Sports Group. The corporation rebranded after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November.

Cincinnati games will continue on the FanDuel Sports Network, which had previously operated as Bally Sports Ohio. Despite the name changes, it’s essentially the same setup as in previous seasons. The main change for consumers is that fans can now stream games on the FanDuel Sports Network app in addition to viewing them on television.

This represents a change of plans for the Reds. Major League Baseball had announced in November that it would step in to handle Reds broadcasts in the Cincinnati area. That came after the broadcast corporation — then operating as Diamond — abandoned its previous contract with the team.

At the time, it didn’t seem the Reds were keen on negotiating a new deal that came with a revenue cut. They’ve reversed course. “Representatives of the former Diamond Sports and myself and Phil [Castellini, the team’s president] stayed in touch periodically since we made the decision to go to [MLB],” the team’s chief operating officer Doug Healy said in a statement. “Recently, as in the last few weeks, they approached us about re-engaging and discussing our 2025 broadcast rights.”

The Reds are the second team to revert to the FanDuel Sports Networks after previously planning to turn broadcasts to MLB. The Brewers did the same a couple weeks ago. In both cases, the team only agreed to a one-year deal. MLB has expressed skepticism about the broadcast corporation’s long-term viability despite its emergence from bankruptcy.

Unsurprisingly, the Reds did not reveal how much they’ll be paid on this contract. It’s almost certainly less than what they’d received under their previous TV deal, which reportedly paid around $60MM annually. However, Healy indicated that the new contract could have a slight impact on the organization’s player payroll.

“The deal with FanDuel does enhance our economics slightly. … It’s our goal to continue to give (GM Nick Krall) and his staff every available resource that the franchise has in 2025. Then it’s up to Nick how best to spend that,” the COO said. As recently as last week, Krall told reporters (including Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that the front office had “a little bit (of payroll flexibility), not a ton.” That came after the Reds acquired Gavin Lux, who’ll make $3.325MM for his penultimate arbitration season. That pushed Cincinnati’s projected payroll to roughly $106MM, per RosterResource. That’s narrowly above the $100MM range at which they ended the ’24 season.

While Krall did not mention the TV situation at the time, he was presumably aware that negotiations were ongoing. It’s possible that Krall was already accounting for the “enhanced” economics that Healy referenced when saying that the team had limited flexibility. Still, Healy’s comments provide some hope for Cincinnati fans about the team potentially making a late-offseason addition. A splash for Jack Flaherty or Anthony Santander remains tough to envision, but the Reds were recently linked to free agent reliever Carlos Estévez. Perhaps that kind of acquisition is more realistic now than it would’ve been had the team stuck with its initial plans to give the broadcasts to MLB.

Main Street Sports is back up to nine teams for which it’ll carry in-market broadcasts: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Royals and Tigers. The Guardians and Twins are still set to allow MLB to handle distribution. They’re following in the footsteps of the Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies — each of whom was broadcast by MLB this past season. Main Street Sports has also dropped its deal with the Rangers. The Texas organization is not expected to return to Main Street Sports or to sign on with MLB. Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote last month that the Rangers were exploring ways to negotiate individual deals with various cable providers rather than contracting with an RSN.

Brewers Reach New Broadcast Deal With Diamond Sports Group

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The Brewers announced on Tuesday that they’ve reached agreement with Diamond Sports Group to handle in-market broadcasting for the 2025 season. Unsurprisingly, the team did not reveal how much they’ll make in rights fees.

It’s a reversal from plans announced in October. At the time, Major League Baseball announced that it would take over in-market broadcasting for Milwaukee. That came shortly after Diamond, the parent company of FanDuel Sports Networks (formerly the Bally Sports Networks), announced that it was abandoning its contract with the team. Diamond subsequently finalized a plan to avoid liquidation and emerge from bankruptcy to continue operations for at least one more year.

Evidently, Diamond and the Brewers had kept open communications even though Milwaukee initially intended to turn broadcasts to the league. They’ve found a mutually agreeable price point — presumably below what Diamond would have owed under their previous agreement — to stick with the company for another season.

Brewers business operations president Rick Schlesinger tells Adam McCalvy of MLB.com that the team could turn the rights to MLB as soon as the 2026 season. “Long term, whether it’s 2026 or thereafter, I do think MLB Media is the place where we’re ultimately going to land, and I think that’s going to be in the best interest of the fans and the teams and the league to get a model that provides for the widest possible distribution across the most number of platforms with the highest technology and the best economics for the league and the teams,” Schlesinger said. “But we are comfortable with the quality of the production that Diamond Sports, Ballys and now FanDuel are operating under, and we like the continuity. Our fans will find the games the same places they found it last year.”

It isn’t known if this will have any impact on Milwaukee’s player payroll. The Brewers have only made one major league free agent addition this offseason, signing lefty Grant Wolfram to a deal that presumably landed around the league minimum. RosterResource calculates their payroll around $118MM, narrowly above the approximate $116MM mark at which they ended the ’24 season.

Diamond is back up to eight MLB teams for which it’ll carry in-market broadcasts: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Royals and Tigers. The Guardians, Reds and Twins are turning broadcasts over to MLB. They’re following in the footsteps of the Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies — each of whom was broadcast by MLB this past season. Diamond has also dropped its deal with the Rangers. The Texas organization is not expected to return to Diamond or to sign on with MLB. Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote this month that the Rangers were exploring ways to negotiate individual deals with various cable providers rather than contracting with an RSN.

Rays, Tigers Reach Deals With Diamond Sports Group

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Diamond Sports Group revealed in court filings on Wednesday that it has reached new broadcasting deals with the Rays and Tigers, as first observed by Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (X link). The Rays released a statement confirming their agreement. The Tigers have not commented.

Both teams presumably took reduced rates from their prior contracts with Diamond, which had operated under the Bally Sports name until a recent rebrand. Terms of both agreements remains unreported. Diamond had abandoned its contracts with 11 of its 12 partners, only abiding by the original terms of its agreement with the Braves. Court filings today revealed that some portion of the Braves’ deal was amended, though it’s not clear what changes were made.

Diamond has since hammered out new deals with the Marlins, Cardinals, Angels, Rays and Tigers. The Rangers and Reds are looking elsewhere, while the Twins, Brewers and Guardians agreed to allow Major League Baseball to handle in-market distribution. The Royals are the only team that remains in limbo. Evan Drellich of the Athletic reports that Diamond remains in talks with the Kansas City franchise.

There should be resolution by the end of the week. Diamond is set for a confirmation hearing tomorrow on its reorganization plan. The company needs approval from the bankruptcy court to avoid liquidation. The Braves and MLB had filed an objection last week, expressing their belief that Diamond was in danger of quickly falling back into insolvency. Drellich writes that MLB and the Braves have withdrawn their objection. The Department of Justice is the only party still objecting to Diamond’s plan, as they’ve taken issue with some of the legal releases. That seems to be a minor hurdle, so Diamond appears well positioned to continue operations at least into 2025.

Angels Reach New Broadcast Deal With Diamond Sports Group

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November 11: The Angels’ deal with Diamond is a three-year contract, reports Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

November 9: The Angels reached a local broadcasting/streaming contract with Diamond Sports Group yesterday, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The team will remain on the FanDuel Sports Network, the same organization that previously operated under the Bally Sports name. The Angels have not made an official announcement.

Terms of the deal remain unreported. For fans, the biggest development is the introduction of the streaming agreement. Fans in the Anaheim area can access Halos games on the FanDuel Sports app even if they don’t have a television provider that carries the network. The Cardinals reached a similar arrangement, which should dramatically reduce the number of blackouts, with Diamond earlier this week.

Diamond abandoned 11 of its 12 existing TV deals last month. They’ve renegotiated new terms with the Marlins, Cardinals and Angels. Diamond plans to honor its initial arrangement with the Braves. It’ll carry at least four teams next season. The Twins, Guardians and Brewers have announced that they’ll allow MLB to handle in-market broadcasts. The Rangers are still exploring options but do not intend to renegotiate with Diamond.

The Reds are taking that path as well. The Cincinnati franchise revealed in court on Friday that it was unable to come to terms with Diamond (link via Evan Drellich of the Athletic). The Reds gave up their stake in what had been a joint venture with Diamond covering FanDuel Sports Network Ohio. They’ll look for other arrangements. The Rays, Royals and Tigers remain in limbo and could still hammer out new contracts.

That all presupposes that Diamond continues to exist. The corporation still needs approval from the bankruptcy court to embark on a reorganization plan at all. The confirmation hearing is set for next Thursday and Friday. MLB and the Braves leveled formal objections yesterday, expressing their belief that Diamond has “a substantial likelihood” of going under again if the court approves reorganization. In the event the court overrules those objections, the Angels will be back on FanDuel Sports Network for at least another season.

Cardinals Reach New Broadcast Deal With Diamond Sports Group

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The Cardinals announced this afternoon that they’ve reached a new multi-year contract with FanDuel Sports Network to continue carrying in-market broadcasts. The deal includes a streaming partnership that’ll allow consumers in the St. Louis area to access games on the FanDuel app. Hannah Wyman and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch write that app subscribers can view the games without a television provider, which should drastically reduce blackouts.

FanDuel Sports Network, which is a property of Diamond Sports Group, is the same TV network that had broadcasting rights to Cardinals games under the previous Bally Sports moniker. Last month, Diamond abandoned its previous deals with the Cards and 11 other teams as it continues to navigate bankruptcy. Diamond expressed openness to renegotiating at least some of those deals at reduced fees.

The Cards were willing to do so despite the associated revenue losses. Wyman and Goold report that they’ll take a 23% reduction next season compared to what they would’ve made on the prior contract. With the previous deal calling for roughly $75MM in rights fees, the Cardinals stand to drop roughly $17.25MM to the $57-58MM range. The team did not specify the length of this contract beyond calling it a multi-year partnership. Evan Drellich and Katie Woo of the Athletic report that the deal does not stretch into the 2030s and affords some measure of flexibility depending on the future state of sports media.

For fans, the streaming addition is the biggest direct news. The deal is indirectly relevant to the fanbase by providing the organization with a bit of clarity on their revenue situation. The expected revenue losses have long pointed to a dip in spending. That was reinforced by the decision to decline a few team options, most notably a $12MM call on Kyle Gibson. They’re not expected to pursue reunions with free agents Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Kittredge.

That could account for most of the payroll reduction. St. Louis has a little less than $110MM committed. Their arbitration class is projected for something in the $19MM range. That leaves the Cards nearly $50MM south of this past season’s Opening Day spending. The Cardinals are going to get trade interest on a number of veterans as they embrace a retooling effort and evaluate younger players. Speculation about a complete teardown was quieted this week with reports that Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray, both of whom have no-trade clauses, are unlikely to move after suggesting they preferred to stay in St. Louis.

The Cardinals become the second team to negotiate a new deal with Diamond after its previous broadcasting agreement was dropped. The Marlins reportedly reached a contract to stay on FanDuel Sports Network last month, though Miami hasn’t made any official announcement. Diamond is abiding by its original contract with the Braves, so it’ll carry at least three teams next year.

ESPN’s Alden González writes that MLB will carry broadcasts for the Twins, Guardians and Brewers — all of whom were dropped by Diamond. (They join the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies in that regard.) The Rangers said they have no plans to renegotiate with Diamond but are still exploring other opportunities. Plans for the other five teams — the Reds, Rays, Tigers, Angels and Royals — are still undetermined.

Marlins Reach New Broadcast Deal With Diamond Sports Group

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Attorneys for Major League Baseball and Diamond Sports Group revealed in court this morning that DSG and the Marlins reached a new broadcasting arrangement for the 2025 season (link via Evan Drellich of the Athletic). The Marlins did not announce the deal, nor has anyone reported specifics on the rights fees.

The Fish were one of 12 teams whose local broadcasts were carried on Diamond’s Bally Sports networks this past season. Diamond announced today that it has agreed to a naming rights deal with the sports gambling company FanDuel. The Bally Sports networks will be rebranded as FanDuel Sports networks, though there’s otherwise little change for consumers.

Amidst its ongoing bankruptcy proceeding, Diamond announced in early October that it would abandon its contracts with every team aside from the Braves. Of the 11 clubs that were dropped, the Twins, Guardians, Rangers and Brewers announced they would look elsewhere. The other seven indicated they might renegotiate deals with Diamond at a diminished rate.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes that Diamond paid the Marlins around $50MM to carry games in the Miami area this past season. It’s not clear how much of a cut the Fish will take next year. Various teams have pointed to TV revenue issues as reasons for reducing player payroll. The Marlins don’t have much to cut at this point. They did virtually nothing last offseason, spending $5MM in free agency. They’re now amidst a complete rebuild and presumably aren’t going to spend more than a few million dollars this winter either.

The other six teams that remain in limbo are the Reds, Rays, Tigers, Angels, Cardinals and Royals. Diamond still needs to demonstrate to the bankruptcy court that it has a viable plan to move forward and avoid liquidation. Drellich notes that confirmation hearing is set to begin on November 14. Assuming the court approves the plan, Diamond will move forward with at least the Braves and Marlins for the ’25 season.

MLB, MLBPA Agree To Redirect CBT Money To Teams Losing TV Revenue

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MLB and the Players Association have agreed to a change to the collective bargaining agreement that’ll help teams whose television rights situations are uncertain. Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports that the league is now permitted to redirect its portion of competitive balance tax money to clubs that have lost TV revenue. Those teams can receive a maximum of $15MM or the necessary amount to compensate for their revenue drop.

Teams that exceed the competitive balance tax threshold are required to pay fees at the end of each season. The league and union split the money. The MLBPA’s portion funds its retirement accounts. That is unaffected by today’s agreement. The league now has the discretion to allocate some of its half of the money to clubs that have seen their TV revenues drop in either of the last two seasons. According to Drellich, the MLBPA projects the league’s half of the CBT payments to total around $150MM this year. Today’s agreement permits the commissioner’s office to distribute half that money to the teams affected by TV problems.

It’s a sensible arrangement for both parties. MLB gets more flexibility to support organizations that have lost some or all of a key revenue source in recent seasons. The union expects that’ll lead to a trickle-down benefit on player salaries. Last offseason, roughly a third of teams pointed to concerns about the long-term viability of their TV contracts as justification for limiting payroll raises or outright payroll cuts. Most of those organizations had contracts with Diamond Sports Group, which is trying to survive as it concludes a lengthy bankruptcy proceeding.

Diamond dropped its contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks midway through last season. This spring, it renegotiated its deals with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers at lesser fees after threatening to abandon those contracts. Texas had a quieter offseason than expected for a defending World Series champion. Minnesota sliced payroll over the winter and its ownership is reportedly still reluctant to take on money via deadline deals. AT&T Sports dropped its local TV deals with the Rockies, Pirates, Mariners and Astros last offseason. Pittsburgh, Seattle and Houston found alternate broadcasting arrangements (likely with reduced revenues), while MLB stepped in to handle Rockies broadcasts within market.

A good number of teams remain skeptical about the long-term future of their regional sports networks. Diamond is carrying 12 teams on its networks at least through the end of this season. MLB has made no secret of its wariness about the broadcaster’s viability for ’25 and beyond.

Diamond’s ongoing conflict with Xfinity hasn’t done it any favors in that regard. A contract dispute between the broadcaster and the carrier has kept Xfinity customers from watching any games on Diamond networks since May. Blackout restrictions prevent MLB from stepping in to handle in-market broadcasts, leaving a subset of fans without the ability to watch their teams for a couple months.

There was a positive development on that front this morning. An attorney for Diamond said at today’s bankruptcy hearing that DSG and Xfinity had made progress in negotiations and expected to finalize a new contract “in the very near term” (link via Alden González of ESPN).

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