MLB is Growing Again

Bloomberg - "Major League Baseball Is Growing Again. Why Isn’t Its TV Money?"

"Major League Baseball’s TV conundrum
Major League Baseball is off to its best start in years. Viewership is up across all its major national TV packages, led by ESPN, where ratings are up 22%. TBS and Fox have scored 16% and 10% lifts, respectively, the league said this week. Game attendance hit a seven-year high in 2024 and is inching up again this year. (The viewership on Japanese TV network NHK is also up about 22%.)

And yet, the league is scrambling to find a buyer for a major TV package that includes 30 regular season games, the Home Run Derby, the Wild Card playoff round and up to 10 spring training games. ESPN said in February that it would end its broadcast deal with MLB after the 2025 season, pulling out of the relationship three years ahead of schedule. The sports network had been paying the league $550 million a year and wanted to pay less than half that price.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred initially responded by saying ESPN was a shrinking platform, only to later concede “we liked the deal we had” and that he wishes he didn’t have to sell these rights at this moment. NBC and Apple are in talks to buy some or all the games, though neither is willing to match the $550 million price tag. Fox has expressed an interest in more baseball as well. Other potential buyers, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon and Netflix, are all sitting on the sidelines."