Report: ESPN won’t carry FanDuel Sports Network games on future streamer

Despite reports to the contrary, talks between ESPN and Main Street Sports Group, the parent company of the FanDuel Sports Networks (FDSN) regional channels, do not involve FDSN games being included directly within ESPN’s streaming product.

Earlier reports noted that the two sides were discussing a partnership that would include FDSN games in ESPN’s future “Flagship” streaming service. That would have given ESPN a path to still air Major League Baseball on its platforms without striking a new deal directly with the league. ESPN recently opted out of its contract with MLB.

However, in his latest newsletter, Puck’s John Ourand details that while talks have happened between ESPN and Main Street, any deal will look much more like a marketing partnership that would direct ESPN users to a FDSN platform rather than giving users the ability to watch games natively within ESPN’s future streamer.

“I can report that ESPN and Main Street Sports (née Diamond), which owns the FanDuel–branded R.S.N.s, are talking,” Ourand wrote. “But these discussions have thus far focused on a marketing push that would bundle both companies’ direct-to-consumer offerings for a fee, akin to the WBD-Disney deal that combines Disney+, Hulu, and Max D.T.C. People familiar with the talks say the parties are not focused on an arrangement akin to the one Main Street has with Amazon, which would have allowed ESPN to offer the Main Street R.S.N.s as an add-on to its direct-to-consumer service.

“That’s an important distinction,” he added. “Indeed, several sports business executives, including league sources, believed that ESPN was trying to come up with a cost-effective way to carry MLB games after its contract runs out this fall.”

Ourand says that “ESPN [would like] to eventually offer the FanDuel R.S.N.s as add-on packages to its ESPN+ and Flagship subscribers, but sources insist that this is not part of the current talks.” Further, Main Street’s current deal with Amazon precludes the company from making similar arrangements for an “undetermined length of time.”

So for now, it seems that ESPN will not be in the MLB business. At least not directly.