When ESPN re-upped its deal with Major League Baseball this past May they included a key wrinkle in the $3.85 billion deal. The network passed on their usual package of midweek games. Those contests are now up for grabs, with ESPN set to relinquish their rights next year.
A few suitors are in the works, according to MLB CRO Noah Garden.“The good news is that we have a lot of options, We’re looking to continue to distribute these games in a bigger way on emerging platforms. This content is tailormade for that.”
ESPN gave up the package because the network also had to share those midweek games with regional sports networks, cannibalizing their broadcast. Despite that, they still have rights to Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and any possible expansion to the MLB Wild Card Series.
Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand laid out two possible suitors for the midweek package, Peacock and YouTube. The NBC streaming service has been involved with live sports package negotiations recently and could need more big fish to keep up with Paramount+ and ESPN+.
“There’s more activity than you think; it’s not traditional conversations,” Garden said. “Some have big platforms and want content. Others want content to grow their platforms. It’s different conversations with everybody.”
Peacock is exclusively streaming some Olympics events and has established a relationship with WWE. Meanwhile, YouTube already has a firm connection to the sport with their MLB Game of the Week, airing free on the app. Ourand also noted that sports gambling companies could make a push for the rights, but deemed it unlikely.
“They are kicking the tires on content in general because they want to deliver an experience to people that want to gamble that’s different than our normal product,” Garden said. “But we’ll never want to take our core feed, that’s a family feed, and load it up with gambling.”
