ESPN and MLB renew talks for scaled-back broadcast deal — The Athletic

Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) ESPN and Major League Baseball are in talks to repair their fractured relationship and bring professional baseball back to the network, according to The Athletic.

The talks are reportedly in the early stages and would only provide the network with local broadcast rights and pieces of ESPN’s former package.

The relationship disintegrated early in 2025 when ESPN and MLB “mutually” decided to end their 35-year partnership at the end of the 2025 baseball season. While ESPN felt they were overpaying for broadcast rights, the league accused ESPN of undervaluing content, especially as the network cut back its coverage to 30 regular season games — a third of its previous coverage.

“In making this decision, we applied the same discipline and fiscal responsibility that has built ESPN’s industry-leading live events portfolio as we continue to grow our audience across linear, digital and social platforms,” the network diplomatically said in a statement at the time.

In response, MLB said that ESPN’s demand to reduce rights fees was “unacceptable” and decided to “mutually terminate” their agreement with the network.

ESPN was paying an average of $550M per season for MLB games under its previous 7-year contract versus $10M Roku (ROKU) pays for Sunday afternoon games, and $85M by Apple (AAPL) for a Friday night package. Despite the disagreement over coverage, ESPN said it “remains open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans,” albeit at a reduced rate.

According to The Athletic, if the two were to hammer out a deal it would likely be for just 3 years as Fox’s World Series/Playoff, TNT’s Sports’ playoff rights, and MLB’s international packages are all up for renegotiation at that time.