MLB now eyeing long-term media rights plan for all 30 teams - ESPN

NEW YORK — For Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, the recent conclusion of Diamond Sports Group's bankruptcy created an «overwhelming sense of relief» with short-term certainty as the league eyes its long-term media rights plan.

«I think the good news is that we did a pretty good job in terms of maximizing the economics for the clubs,» Manfred said Wednesday during the owners' meetings. «We never lost a game. And we have a lot of flexibility come 2028, which was our primary focus.»

A bankruptcy judge approved Diamond's reorganization plan last Thursday, setting the country's largest operator of regional sports networks to emerge from bankruptcy 20 months after initially filing for Chapter 11.

Diamond moves forward with at least six MLB teams, while MLB, at the moment, possesses the local media rights — linear TV rights and in-market, direct-to-consumer streaming rights — for seven teams. The six clubs that negotiated new deals with Diamond — the Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays — will all have their contracts expire by 2028, when MLB's major national deals with ESPN, Fox and Turner are slated to end. That is not a coincidence.

MLB hopes to have roughly half its teams' broadcast rights to negotiate with companies then. The league's ultimate goal is to hold linear and digital rights for all 30 clubs to have available for negotiations with networks. MLB believes nationalizing the broadcast rights would maximize revenue and eliminate local blackouts, which would expand reach. But that would require compelling clubs with stable regional sports networks, a few of which at least partially own the networks, to eventually relinquish their