ESPN will stop broadcasting Major League Baseball games after 2025, ending a 35-year partnership. The partnership is ending due to financial disagreements and MLB’s concerns about ESPN’s coverage – ESPN wanted to reduce its current $550 million yearly fee for showing baseball games, while MLB was unhappy with ESPN’s minimal coverage outside of live games.
Baseball isn’t happy about ESPN’s request for a discount. The sport is actually growing – more people watched baseball on ESPN in 2024 than in 2023. Sunday night games saw 6% more viewers. The playoff games drew 2.8 million viewers per game, up 25% from last year.
ESPN’s reach has shrunk significantly. In 2011, ESPN was in 100 million homes. Now it’s in just 53.6 million homes. More people are switching from cable TV to streaming services, changing how fans watch sports.
The current deal lets ESPN show 30 regular season games, mostly on Sunday nights. They also get playoff games and the Home Run Derby. This is already much less than their previous deal, which included 90 regular season games.
Baseball attracts different viewers than other ESPN shows. More women watch baseball – 32% of viewers compared to 27% for other ESPN programs. Hispanic viewers make up 10% of the baseball audience, higher than most other sports on ESPN.
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Baseball stadiums saw their biggest crowds in seven years during 2024, with 71.3 million fans attending games. This strong attendance gives baseball confidence as it looks for new TV partners.
ESPN says it’s open to working with baseball differently after 2025. Meanwhile, baseball is talking with streaming services and traditional TV networks about new deals. The sport still has major contracts with Fox ($729 million yearly) and Turner Sports ($470 million yearly) through 2028.
Think of it like this – baseball content is still popular and in demand, but how it reaches viewers is changing. ESPN was one of the main broadcasters for baseball coverage. Now with streaming services like Apple ($85 million per year) and Roku ($10 million per year) in the market, viewers have different options for watching games.
The change shows how sports broadcasting is evolving. After 2025, MLB will work with new broadcast partners to deliver games to viewers. Both ESPN and baseball are adapting to changes in how media companies distribute sports content, with traditional TV and streaming services both playing important roles.
