Reports On New MLB Media Rights Deal

Obviously, nothing is finalized as of yet, but a good bit to chew on. Some early thoughts:

I’m a bit surprised that Apple may be bowing out with years left on the agreement. Makes me wonder if the finances aren’t working for them, while they’re trying for other sports ventures like F1.

For ESPN, it’s for the best they bow out of the live broadcasts. Their coverage of games has gotten so stale. It used to be assignment viewing for baseball fans. How many of us watched Baseball Tonight every night? But their coverage has been lacking and it appears the network is more interested in the NFL and NBA.

Now, the potential purchase of MLB TV by ESPN is interesting. There’s been talk before about the network getting into local distribution of MLB games. How will that work and what will it mean for the Braves? I’m not sure. ESPN is about to launch a DTC app here soon. Can speculate that perhaps that and the purchase of MLB TV could be related.

I’m a bit surprised Fox isn’t making a bigger play for the Home Run Derby to put on FS1. Netflix getting involved is not as surprising, though I really thought Fox would win out. For Netflix, this is them getting a bit more into the sports biz after having NFL games on Christmas Day last year and doing it again this year. It’s also another indication of how we watch live sports is changing.

Should this happen, NBC comes to me as a potential winner. Having a Friday game potentially on Peacock is ideal for them and also a lot of advertising on their large family of networks. And if NBC gets the Sunday night package, then they’ve got prime time Sundays all year. They’ve got the wildly popular Sunday Night Football and NBA coming in after the NFL season is over. Having prime time Sunday games all year is a feather in their cap possibly.
 
if i have to pay for an espn subscription on top of mlb.tv to watch the braves, i will just cancel my subscription and pirate every game i feel like watching
 
The espn app is awful.

Hopefully the MLBTV app remains as is at around the same price.

I just like to watch games at my convenience and watch highlights quickly without ads spammed at me. I fear both of those elements are donezo in this ESPN world
 
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