ESPN’s New Deal: Sunday Opener, Much Less Money, Half the Games
Major league baseball announced a new cable television deal with ESPN on Thursday, giving the all-sports network an exclusive Sunday night season opener in each of the next six seasons.
Bill Giles, president of the Philadelphia Phillies and a member of baseball’s TV negotiating committee, said the six-year deal was for $255 million, representing less than half of what it got from ESPN in each of the last four years.
The contract also calls for ESPN to do about half the games it used to, 70-80 a season.
“The general feeling is there are too many games on cable,” Giles said at an owners meeting in Boston, where the contract was announced.
With owners still working on a three-division alignment in each league, the exact schedule has yet to be determined, but opening night next season apparently would be April 3.
Baseball’s season openers have been played on Mondays, and the break with tradition was seen as a key concession to ESPN.
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