Sports Media

[zambonir]

One other note in there, they are considering selling MLB.TV to a third-party (Apple, YouTube, Amazon, ESPN all mentioned). I wonder if the buyer would be making it part of their product (as with NHL Center Ice becoming part of ESPN +) or an add-on (as with MLS where you need both an Apple TV sub and one-time fee for the package).

[andyb]

I think their vision for MLB.TV is to just provide access to the games on more platforms. I am sure ESPN would want to link it to their new standalone system. Doubt it would be part of the base fee though. And of course they want to offer in-market games too with that package. The current deals all run through 2028 (and T-Mobile's deal with MLB.TV does too), but the future is pretty uncertain after that. MLB thinks they can get more money by packaging the local rights together, but those rights add up to about $3 billion a year ($100 million per team average). Can they really get more than that??