What Future TV Deals Look Like With MLB All-Star Game, Home Derby, And National Broadcasts Being Up
As Major League Baseball heads out of the All-Star Game break, television viewership numbers are starting to paint a picture about the popularity of the league.
The league could use whatever good news it can get after an opt-out clause was exercised between them and ESPN which will see the Worldwide Leader discontinue Sunday Night Baseball regular season package, the Wild Card Series and the Home Run Derby when the current season ends. That deal sees $550 million annually. National broadcast deals with FOX ($728.6 million per year) and TBS ($470 million annually) end in 2028.
So, viewership numbers for Monday's Home Run Derby and Tuesday's All-Star Game were going to be closely watched, given they are key jewel events in the summer. Major League Baseball has reason to be smiling.
According to Nielsen, viewership for this year's Home Run Derby, which aired exclusively on ESPN platforms – ESPN and ESPN2 – was up +5% from last year, reversing a trend of declines in previous years. The event, which saw Seattle Mariners catcher and current league home run leader Cal Raleigh win, drew an average audience of 5,729,000 viewers, compared to 5,451,000 viewers in 2024. The combined ESPN and ESPN2 audience peaked with 6,307,000 viewers at 9:30 p.m. ET. That made it the most-watched program of the day across all of broadcast and cable television and in all key demographics.
For the All-Star Game on FOX, 7.2 million viewers tuned in across FOX & FOX Sports streaming services. While down -3.5% from last year's Midsummer Classic, it continues to be the most-watched of all the major league All-Star games and the most-watched MLB All-Star game since 2017. For FOX, it was the most-watched telecast since Super Bowl Sunday. The game peaked at 9:15-9:30 PM ET with 8.1 million viewers.
All of this sits against the backdrop of the national viewership for the regular season.
ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball is having its most-watched season since 2017, averaging 1.71 million per game. FOX, which airs games nationally on Saturdays, is having its most-watched season since 2021, with TBS' Tuesday games averaging 382,000 per game, marking their most-watched since 2015.
Below shows the current revenues for ESPN, FOX, and TBS compared to the prior media rights deals they had.
Major League Baseball is working toward two issues around national media rights: what they do with the three-year gap created with the ESPN opt-out and what happens in 2028 when FOX and TBS see their deals expire. Clearly, the league will want to get into a rhythm where all the deals start and end at basically the same time, so what comes out of what ESPN carried seems to favor a short-term deal. And, that deal is likely to be split among multiple media rights holders as opposed to having one picking up the whole package.
After that, Rob Manfred is looking to shift away from the highly fragmented world in which it lives. Along with the traditional deals that it has with the three major networks, there is the Apple TV+ deal for Friday Night games ($85 million annually) and Roku's 'Sunday Leadoff' package that comes in at $10 million annually.
'We think we have a cluttered environment right now,' Manfred said on CNBC. 'There's a lot of places you have to go if you're a fan of a particular team, and we think that we should strive to create a more fan-friendly environment. People understand better where the games are, you know, kind of a default. 'My game is always here.' And you know, absolutely have to end the blackouts that have plagued us for a really long time.'
Beyond the national broadcast packages, Manfred is envisioning out-of-market media rights that are currently via regional sports networks, being in the mix.
'I think that the key in media negotiations now is having all of your rights available,' he added on CNBC. 'You know, the ESPN package, while, it's a great package, it had a very small piece of playoffs in it. I think you do the best, and I think both the NFL and the NBA have demonstrated this, if you have all of your content, all of your playoffs, all of your regular season available, there will be buyers. And I'm confident that there will be buyers at a higher price for us.'
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