Major League Baseball has been slow to announce the party platter of media rights deals it struck to replace the expiring ESPN deal, but the fact that MLB is now in bed with more than a half-dozen broadcast partners bodes incredibly well for the future.
Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery remain MLB’s primary partners, with regular-season games and one league championship series apiece each year through 2028. Apple and Roku each own a standalone national window each weekend. Starting next season, NBC will air regular-season games and the Wild Card series, while Netflix will stream the Home Run Derby.
Coming off a memorable and highly watched Fall Classic between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, MLB has a strong stable of partners that should drive considerable demand when the broadcast rights package comes up for renewal in 2028 and 2029.
In a conversation on the Marchand Sports Media podcast this week, sports media insiders Andrew Marchand and John Ourand agreed that all this pent-up demand could lead MLB to award multiple partners with the opportunity to broadcast a World Series under the next deal.
“If you’re baseball and you look at 2029 and you look at the World Series, I kind of foresee them breaking up that World Series,” Marchand said. “I could see Fox staying in the game for sure, but (I’m not sure about) the idea that Fox will be the only carrier of the World Series. I think they’re going to want the most money.”
Fox has broadcast each World Series in the 21st century. For most of that time, they were the only MLB media partner that aired sports on a free broadcast network.
With ESPN moving more sports to ABC (including the Wild Card series), NBC involved, CBS hungry to spend, and top streamers continuing to add subscribers, baseball has numerous options to maintain the reach it gets with the World Series on Fox. As a result, the league could look to award multiple partners with a World Series and wring even more money out of the next package.
Marchand believes the Fall Classic could be split among as many as three different broadcasters, while Ourand confirmed that the appetite to partner with baseball is at a high right now.
“Right now, there are so few things that cut through,” Ourand said. “The World Series, baseball playoffs, is something that cuts through. And I have no doubt that there are going to be multiple bidders that are trying to get MLB.”
The NFL, NHL, and WNBA are among the top leagues whose championship series jump around year to year. History shows that as long as viewers can access the broadcast easily, they will flock to whichever platform airs it.
MLB could be the next to test that theory and cash in.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.