Rob Manfred confirms MLB has reached ‘agreements in principle’ with NBC, ESPN, Netflix

Weeks after reports first became public about how Major League Baseball would divvy up its short-term media rights agreements after ESPN opted out of its Sunday Night Baseball package earlier this year, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is confirming the validity of those reports.

Appearing at the Front Office Sports “Tuned In” conference on Tuesday, Manfred said, “We have, kind of, agreements in principle. We still have issues that need to be resolved. They are the agreements that have been reported publicly, and we hope to push them across the finish line.”

Publicly, reports suggest that NBC and Peacock will acquire the rights to Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card round games currently part of ESPN’s package. Netflix is reportedly paying $50 million per year for the Home Run Derby, according to a CNBC report. And ESPN, despite opting out of its current deal, will stay in the baseball business with a midweek package of MLB games, the in-market local rights for the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Minnesota Twins, and Colorado Rockies, as well as the ability to license MLB.tv, the league’s out-of-market local broadcast package.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro supported Manfred’s characterization of the deal’s progress earlier in the conference. “When I last spoke publicly, I said that conversations were healthy, and I would say, since then, we’ve made good progress,” Pitaro said. “I don’t want to go further than that, but we’ve certainly made good progress with Rob and his team.”

It’s unclear precisely what “issues” still need to be resolved before Rob Manfred and the league can finalize the deals. However, it seems pretty set in stone that MLB has found its new broadcast setup to take it through the 2028 season, at which point the league will control all of its national rights and bring them to market.