One of MLB’s national media deals has expired.
Per Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal, MLB’s deal with Peacock expired after the 2023 season. But the league is still considering next steps, which could include reupping with Peacock.
MLB's deal with Peacock for Sunday morning baseball expired at end of season. MLB exploring options for future home, which could remain Peacock.
— Joe Flint (@JBFlint) December 8, 2023
MLB’s package of games with Peacock, branded as Sunday Leadoff, brought Sunday morning and early afternoon games exclusively to the streaming platform in both 2022 and 2023. The Sunday Leadoff package was called by Jason Benetti in 2022 and Brendan Burke in 2023, with each joined by a series of rotating analysts based on the matchup.
Sunday Leadoff reportedly paid MLB $30 million in each season.
The Peacock package was criticized for putting another game each week behind a streaming paywall. MLB’s deal with Apple for the Friday Night Baseball package put a pair of Friday games each week behind the Apple TV+ paywall. That deal reportedly runs seven years in total (or five more following its first two seasons), paying $55 million annually in rights fees and another $30 million in advertising.
Given the relatively low value of the Peacock deal, it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise if MLB simply let the package die and didn’t try to sell it to Peacock or another outlet. The league is making hundreds of millions of dollars annually from its national media rights deals with ESPN ($560 million annually, though both ESPN and MLB have opt-outs after the 2025 season), Fox ($525 million annually), and Warner Bros. Discovery ($470 million annually), along with the smaller one with Apple.
The Peacock deal was a small drop in the bucket compared to those deals (less than 2% of MLB’s national media rights money came from Peacock). So it’s not as if MLB was financially dependent on this deal.
If the league can strike a renewal with NBC or another media outlet for a similar package to Sunday Leadoff, I’m sure the league would gladly work to get a deal done. If not, I don’t think Rob Manfred and company would sweat the package fading into the night.
