MLB: joint agreement with ESPN to end US broadcasting contract in 2025

"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, ESPN's demand to reduce rights fees is simply unacceptable. As a result, we have mutually agreed to terminate our agreement (at the end of the 2025 season)," announced Major League Baseball on 20/02/2025.

ESPN initially held the US broadcasting rights to MLB through 2028, after extending its agreement with the league for an additional seven seasons on 13/05/2021. The group owned by The Walt Disney Company has been broadcasting MLB since 1990 and is paying $550m (€526m) a year for the rights over the cycle 2022-2028 (i.e. $3.85bn over seven years). ESPN has been broadcasting 30 regular season games a year since 2022, including Sunday night games.

The rights to broadcast MLB games in the United States are also held by the American broadcasting groups Fox ($729m/€697m a year, including…