ESPN’s coverage of Major League Baseball is headed to the bottom of the ninth.
The Walt Disney Co.-owned sports broadcasting giant and MLB separately Thursday night announced an end to their long association after the season that begins next month. The network and league had been in discussions to restructure the TV rights deal, but those talks collapsed this week.
ESPN asked MLB to accept a lower license fee because the broadcaster has been losing money on the $550-million-a-year deal. After talks broke down, ESPN triggered its opt-out clause to terminate the contract, which was due to expire in 2028.
The network said it would broadcast the 2025 season as planned, then end its run after 36 seasons of Sunday night games. ESPN’s arrangement includes the Home Run Derby in July and the first round of the playoffs in October.
MLB blasted ESPN’s attempt to reduce the license fee.
“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,” the league said in a statement.
The shift comes as networks absorb high costs of major sports rights at a time when cable channels such as ESPN are losing subscribers. Cord-cutting has led to a substantial decline in distribution fees that cable and satellite TV operators pay Disney to carry its channels.
Disney’s sports rights costs have also ballooned, particularly after the network agreed to cough up billions more each year to keep the NBA, including the championship finals, and the NFL.
The Burbank entertainment conglomerate also is gearing up to launch its stand-alone ESPN streaming service later this year.
ESPN said it would like to find ways to run some regional baseball games.
“We remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025,” ESPN said.
The national “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast has been a fixture on the network’s schedule since before Disney owned ESPN. Last week, ESPN announced its broadcast teams for the 2025 season.
Coverage begins on March 27 with a New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers game, followed by the World Series champion Dodgers taking on the Detroit Tigers.
“We are grateful for our long-standing 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 has built ESPN’s industry-leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms.”
The league said the agreement to terminate the contract early was a mutual decision.
“We have had a long and mutually beneficial partnership with ESPN that dates back to its first MLB game in 1990,” the league said. “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.”
