Fox exec expresses interest in ESPN’s MLB package

Fox may be in the market for some of ESPN’s old baseball inventory.

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference on Monday, Fox Corporation COO John Nallen indicated the network will be looking into the MLB inventory becoming available as a result of ESPN’s recent breakup with the league.

When asked whether Fox is eyeing any sports rights in the near future, Nallen specifically mentioned the changing landscape in baseball as something the network would look at to bolster its portfolio.

“I think what will come to market in some form will be some baseball product, particularly after baseball and ESPN announced that after the season their relationship would change,” Nallen said, according to a transcript of his remarks posted by Investing.com. “Baseball has been a great product for us,” Nallen continued, “and we’ll probably look at that and look at it in the context of how it makes sense to us overall.”

Currently, Fox pays around $729 million per year for its MLB package, which includes the World Series, a League Championship Series, early round playoff games, a package of regular season games, and the All-Star Game.

So far, Fox has not emerged as a serious contender for ESPN’s MLB package, which is entering its final season on the network. ESPN currently airs Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, and Wild Card round playoff games. Reports thus far have indicated NBC, Amazon, and Netflix as possibilities to pickup either some or all of the rights left available by ESPN, though no firm front-runner has been established.

MLB will be looking to recoup $550 million in lost rights payments as a result of ESPN’s opt-out. The league’s best chance at coming close to that number could be splitting up ESPN’s old package amongst multiple new rights partners. For instance, selling the Home Run Derby to Netflix, Wild Card games to Amazon, and Sunday Night Baseball to Fox, could result in more media rights revenue than simply selling all of ESPN’s current inventory to one partner.

Given Fox’s current relationship with the league, and Nallen’s recent comments, perhaps the network should be seen as more of a realistic landing spot for baseball than was previously thought.