ESPN–MLB Rights Deal Will End After 2025 Season as Sides ‘Mutually’ Opt Out Three Years Early

The seven-year, $550 million-per-season agreement was signed in 2021

Major League Baseball and ESPN announced Thursday that their seven-year national-television deal will end after this season, putting the MLB rights for the remaining three years on the open market.

“We are grateful for our longstanding relationship with Major League Baseball and proud of how ESPN’s coverage super-serves fans,” ESPN said in a statement. “In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that have built ESPN’s industry-leading live-events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital, and social platforms. As we have been throughout the process, we remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”

The announcement comes in advance of a March 1 deadline for MLB and ESPN to opt out of the final three years of their seven-year, $550 million-per-season deal signed in 2021. ESPN will continue to carry Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and MLB Wild Card Series playoff broadcasts through the 2025 season.

“We have had a long and mutually beneficial partnership with ESPN that dates back to its first MLB game in 1990,” MLB said in its own statement. “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 decided to terminate our agreement.”

Under the agreement, ESPN has rights to 30 exclusive regular-season games annually, including 25 editions of Sunday Night Baseball, the Opening Night telecast, and the MLB Little League Classic, as well as the MLB Wild Card Series playoff games. The broadcaster also carries the Home Run Derby as part of its cross-platform MLB All-Star coverage. And it has streaming rights for additional games on ESPN+ and the option to simulcast ESPN/ABC broadcasts on the platform. Other key aspects of the deal are the ability to produce alternative presentations of games, rights to selected Spring Training games, audio rights on ESPN Radio, a package of rights for a Spanish-language telecast for ESPN Deportes, and a wide-ranging collection of highlights for ESPN and ESPN+ studio/original programming and digital news and information platforms.

“Entering the 2025 season,” the league’s statement adds, “MLB is enjoying tremendous momentum led by generational talent on the field and an entertaining brand of baseball due to rule changes that have improved the pace of play and action on the field. The results have generated increases in attendance, viewership, streaming, international growth, and overall fan engagement. 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,” the statement continues, “which would start in the 2026 season following the conclusion of ESPN’s agreement at the end of this year.”