Apple is said to be in talks with Major League Baseball to pick up streaming broadcast rights, especially focused on the Sunday Night Baseball games.The negotiations ensued after ESPN declined to renew its deal beyond the 2025 season.The package of games that make up the former ESPN deal has drawn interest from Apple, NBC and others.
It is likely the league will try to carve up the package into different buckets, to attract both a modern streaming audience and the eyeballs of traditional broadcast TV viewers.As of today, no deal has been signed at this time and talks are ongoing.However, Apple and the MLB already work together thanks to the Friday Night Baseball national games, which sees Apple TV+ exclusively stream two baseball games each Friday with no blackouts or regional restrictions.
The Friday Night Baseball arrangement kicked off in 2022 and is believed to represent a seven-year deal, with Apple paying approximately $85 million per season.With that partnership seemingly doing well, an extension to Sunday nights would be pretty smooth sailing.While Friday Night Baseball is offered as a free perk for TV+ subscribers, it is possible Apple would charge an additional fee if they snagged parts of the ex-ESPN package, simply because it will likely cost them a lot more to make the deal work.
ESPN was paying about $550 million per season, for context.If Apple can make it happen, it would provide a much-needed boost to Apple’s streaming sports offerings.Right now, the company only has Friday Night Baseball and MLS Season Pass under its Apple TV banner.
The company has previously shown interest in making deals for NFL Sunday Ticket and the Pac-12 conference, but ultimately backed out of those plans at a late stage. You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop.
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