ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said the network has made progress on a potential new deal with MLB, although keeping baseball rights beyond this season is still not guaranteed.
“When I last spoke publicly, I said that conversations were healthy, and I would say, since then, we’ve made good progress,” Pitaro said Tuesday at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York. “I don’t want to go farther than that, but we’ve certainly made good progress with [MLB commissioner Rob Manfred] and his team.”
In February, ESPN and MLB agreed to opt out of their current deal that paid the league $550 million annually through 2028. ESPN’s contract now ends after this season. However, the two sides reengaged in talks about a new deal this summer.
On Tuesday, Pitaro said ESPN wants more than just rights to national MLB broadcasts. “Local is super interesting to us, and we’ve made that clear,” he said.
MLB is hoping to build a set of new deals, which could still include ESPN, that will end up being worth more than the $550 million ESPN has been paying per season.
NFL-ESPN Deal Flow
Last month, the NFL agreed to a deal to acquire a 10% equity stake in ESPN, which in turn is set to acquire NFL Network, distribution rights to NFL RedZone, and other league assets.
Pitaro said ESPN remains open to striking similar deals with other leagues, which he had been discussing for several years. “If there’s an opportunity with another league that we think makes good business sense for us, and also is beneficial for the sports fan, we’re of course going to pursue it,” he said.
Despite NFL RedZone ads this season creating some fan displeasure with ESPN, Pitaro isn’t too worried about the confusion. “It was interesting for us on the outside to watch this and to read about some of it on social,” he said. “But again, the deal hasn’t closed yet, and even when it does close, we are not operating RedZone. The NFL will continue to own and operate the RedZone product.”
