MLB’s next media deal will be in the ballpark of its current one.

At the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the league has “agreements in principle” for its next media deal. He added that it will be worth roughly the same annually as the $550 million MLB receives in its current deal with ESPN. 

“We’ve essentially replicated where we would’ve been if ESPN hadn’t opted out,” Manfred said. 

MLB and ESPN “mutually agreed” to end their media deal in February, but the two sides re-engaged in conversations over the summer. The new deal is expected to still include ESPN, and ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said at the FOS summit earlier in the day that “good progress” has been made. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that NBC and Netflix will also be involved. The commissioner called the new deal a “plus” for MLB’s reach and distribution.

Manfred admitted that a shorter deal was “not his first choice,” though entering the market again in three years has “benefits.” This includes local broadcasting rights, with all 30 teams expected to be available by 2028.

“If I had to guess today, we would have the availability of all 30 clubs,” Manfred said. 

However, he said the execution of that future deal will be complicated. 

“The best I can do for you right now is [that] we’re not going to centralize local media as a standalone deal. There will have to be other gives and takes that make sense,” Manfred said.

Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks has overseen six Super Bowls since taking the helm in 2010. But he’s not afraid to admit the 2026 World Cup will be the tallest task in company history.

“It’ll be the biggest logistical undertaking that Fox has ever done,” Shanks said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York.

Fox owns the English-language domestic broadcasting rights for the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19. It’s the first time the quadrennial tournament will be held in the U.S. since 1994. Canada and Mexico are also hosting the tournament, which is expanding from 32 to 48 teams next year.

According to The New York Times, Fox is paying 10% more for the 2026 World Cup rights than in tournaments in 2018 and 2022, which totaled $425 million.

Shanks said there hasn’t yet been much buzz around the country, but he thinks that should change when the calendar turns to 2026 as more local fans learn about the tournament.

“This country has no idea what’s going to hit it next summer,” Shanks said.

Deal With Dave

FOS reported in July that Fox Sports agreed to a partnership with Barstool Sports and its founder, Dave Portnoy. Fox and Barstool’s deal brings additional programs like Wake Up Barstool on FS1, while Portnoy has appeared on Big Noon Kickoff, the network’s college football pregame show.

Asked how to navigate that partnership with some of the company’s other partners and stakeholders, including the NFL and, most recently, Ohio State, which have had some issues with Portnoy, Shanks said it’s no different from other balancing acts he’s done before.

“We’ve put, in the past, some baseball talent, baseball wasn’t exactly happy with. We thought it was good for the show, and everybody was grown-ups and they trust us. … Hopefully, over time, we can find that trust and that medium in there because we’re not out to poke anybody. We’re here to try to make every one of their businesses bigger,” Shanks said. 

Valuing the Streaming Bundle

It’s been less than a month since the launch of Fox One, the company’s streaming service that includes Fox’s broadcast sports portfolio, FS1, and the Big Ten Network. 

Shanks acknowledged the new media landscape has made it “naggingly hard” for sports fans to navigate during game day. He said the sports streaming bundle, and the inclusion of broadcast channels within the bundle, is “the best thing for sports fans,” and that “sports fans have been taken advantage of.”

“We have this theory that wins. … Accessing the broadcast TV channels is still simpler than accessing any other service,” Shanks said.

Amazon has its sights set on its next big venture into NFL media rights: the Super Bowl.

Jay Marine, Amazon’s VP and Global Head of Sports, already helped manufacture an 11-year, $11 billion media rights deal to exclusively air Thursday Night Football. But Marine wants more.

“If I have my way, yes. Absolutely that would be our ambition in the fullness of time. I’ll just say I’m optimistic,” Marine said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York Tuesday.

Fox, NBC, CBS, and ESPN/ABC currently rotate the Super Bowl broadcast rights as part of a larger 11-year, $111 billion media rights deal that also includes Amazon.

Amazon is seeing success with its Thursday Night Football production already in 2025. Its season debut game between the Commanders and Packers averaged 17.76 million viewers, its best regular-season figure since 2022.

Al Michaels, who has called 11 Super Bowls in his career, is Thursday Night Football’s play-by-play announcer, but his immediate future is still up in the air. Marine said Tuesday that they are “taking it year-by-year” with the 80-year-old Michaels, and that they have not talked about 2026 yet.