05/13/2021
As discussed in November and January, ESPN’s next MLB deal will indeed feature far less TV games and somewhat less money, and will focus on exclusivity. ESPN and MLB both announced details of that deal Thursday, with ESPN putting those out around parent corporation Disney’s earning call. The new deal will start in 2022 and run through 2028, and will feature 30 regular-season games on TV per year (down from around 90 under the previous deal), but all of those games will be exclusive (at least two-thirds of ESPN’s games under the previous deal were not exclusive, and were also carried on the participating teams’ regional sports networks). As per John Ourand of