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ESPN’s Baseball Back Door Could Be a Local Rights Deal

Just days after ESPN and MLB announced their forthcoming split, the Disney-owned network could be on the verge of finding a different way to have baseball on its platforms. 

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

There could be a back door, of sorts, that allows ESPN to get back into the business of broadcasting Major League Baseball. 

The Disney-owned network, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, has been in conversations with Main Street Sports about placing content from that company’s regional sports networks within ESPN’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service, informally called Flagship. 

A potential streaming bundle deal between Flagship and Main Street Sports’ FanDuel Sports Network would tie into several emerging trends at once. A deal, if completed, would:

Thematically, an ESPN–Main Street Sports deal would also bear some similarity to the RSN operator’s separate distribution deal with Amazon that makes individual networks available through Prime Video as an add-on option. The Amazon deal is not exclusive, and it was always contemplated that Main Street Sports would strike additional distribution agreements. 

ESPN and Main Street Sports declined to comment. In a recent statement regarding the split from MLB, however, ESPN said, “We remain open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”

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