Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday confirmed that Major League Baseball is nearing broadcast agreements with three media companies for the 2026 through 2028 seasons.
Manfred, during a question-and-answer session after Front Office Sports’ “Tuned In” event, said MLB is close to deals with ESPN for a regular-season package, with Comcast’s NBCUniversal for the wild card series and Sunday night regular-season games, and with Netflix for the All-Star Home Run Derby.
Manfred said a deal for in-market rights for Arizona, Cleveland, Colorado, Minnesota and San Diego is also close.
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“We have, kind of have agreements in principle,” Manfred said. “We still have issues that need to be resolved. They are the agreements that have been reported publicly and we hope to push them across the finish line.”
ESPN had opted out of its deal for Sunday night games and Home Run Derby rights for the 2026 through 2028 seasons. A deal with Apple is to remain in place.
“If those are the agreements that get all the way through and finish, we feel like we made real progress,” Manfred said. “We feel like Sunday night baseball on broadcast television is important. We worked really hard to keep ESPN in as a partner, and we think starting with Netflix is a really exciting opportunity.”
Manfred said talks with ESPN president James Pitaro resumed in July at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference.
“There was a mutuality of interest in terms of staying partners, and it took the parties a little while to think creatively about how we could do that and meet goals that were not exactly aligned,” Manfred said.
Manfred anticipates a different model when baseball negotiates rights packages that will start in 2029.
“There will be more games available in national packages is my bet, but I could be wrong about that. We have three years to go,” Manfred said. “Local is not going away when you have 2,430 games. We’re going to need a local solution for those games that are not available in national packages.”
He said MLB wants each team’s games on fewer channels and added clubs “understand that in order to maximize your revenue in today’s media environment, you have to be more national.”
“Getting more national and getting more games out there on a national basis has to be your No. 1 priority,” Manfred said. “Everybody seems to buy into that. I think there’s a little more trepidation on what’s going to happen with games that are not included in those national packages.”
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