MLB strikes new three-year media deals with ESPN, NBC and Netflix

Major League Baseball has struck a new set of three-year distribution deals with Netflix, ESPN and NBCUniversal, the league announced Wednesday. Why it matters: The new arrangement finally brings some of MLB's local games to a single streaming service with ESPN, making them broadly accessible to fans on a single platform. Zoom in: The deal values MLB rights at roughly $800 million per year, according to a source familiar with the figures. ESPN will pay around $550 million annually for a new package that includes the ability to license and distribute the league's digital out-of-market game package called MLB.TV. It will also receive a national 30-game package throughout the season.ESPN will also maintain exclusive rights to the MLB Little League Classic and add rights to Memorial Day games and second-half opener games.NBC, its new sports cable network NBCSN and its streaming service Peacock will acquire all of the league's Sunday night games, previously distributed by ESPN, as well as wild card playoff games for about $200 million per year.Netflix will get the rights to air MLB's Home Run Derby for about $50 million a year. (Netflix and MLB had previously announced a distribution deal for the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Japan.)Of note: Fox and Fox Sports 1 will continue to air MLB's All-Star Game and regular season games, as well as the World Series, League Championship Series (LCS) and Division Series. TBS will continue to broadcast LCS and Division Series games, as well as Tuesday night regular season games. Apple TV will continue to stream "Friday Night Baseball" doubleheaders throughout the regular season.Catch up quick: MLB was forced to renegotiate its national broadcast rights after ESPN and the league "mutually agreed" in February to end their 35-year national TV rights deal after this season.While most of the league's local rights don't expire until 2028, the national rights deal talks allowed the MLB to start renegotiating some of its local packages earlier.ESPN's old deal was valued at roughly the same amount annually that it's paying now for its new package. Zoom out: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has been eager to nationalize the league's local rights under one streaming entity in an effort to hedge against the collapse of regional sports networks, which have for years carried most of MLB's local games. Last November, Amazon struck a deal to distribute MLB games produced by local RSNs, making them available to Prime Video subscribers as an add-on.The agreement was part of a broader deal to help RSN group Diamond Sports (now known as Main Street Sports Group), emerge from bankruptcy.By the numbers: More than 24 million people watched this year's seven-game World Series in the U.S. and Canada, making the highest-rated World Series finale since 2016. The series capped an impressive ratings resurgence for the league this season in response to rule changes that make the game faster and more engaging to follow.The big picture: MLB's renegotiation of national rights gave media networks and streamers a chance to vie for a lucrative sports contract amid an ultra-competitive TV market. The next major set of rights that programmers will bid for will likely be when and if the NFL chooses to exercise its opt-out agreements and renegotiate the media rights deals it struck in 2021. The NFL can opt-out of its current 11-year deals in 2029. Commissioner Roger Goodell has suggested that negotiations could start much sooner.

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