ESPN and Major League Baseball have agreed to a comprehensive eight-year video rights deal that includes permission for the sprawling Disney sports unit to stream baseball programming from its networks to mobile and wireless devices. That means ESPN can offer ESPN Mobile subs full access to, say, Sunday night baseball. The deal, which runs through 2013, covers Sunday, Monday and Wednesday night games and the signature “Baseball Tonight” (including in-game highlights and live cut-ins).
As is usually the case in these deals, the language is very specific, citing the “ability to include MLB programming as part of the delivery of the ESPN networks via cable, satellite and other new or developing technologies, such as cell phones and wireless devices.”
This follows an earlier agreement with ESPN Radio and an intricate agreement covering ESPN New Media and MLBAM (what we get to see only skims the surface). The new media deal covers, among other aspects, content and sales rights, including the use of highlights, through 2012. For instance, ESPN Mobile and ESPN360 can cut in to baseball telecasts on ESPN networks. ESPN can offer highlights on demand as part of the new media agreement but the video deal announced today does not include VOD.
ESPN President George Bodenheimer explained in a statement: “This caps a series of comprehensive, ‘new world’ agreements, clearly demonstrating that ESPN and Major League Baseball share the same vision — to serve fans through the highest quality content and cutting edge technology.” (Could argue if it was that clear it shouldn’t have taken this long but that’s a different story.)
MLB Commsissioner Bud Selig: “We are dedicated to bringing Major League Baseball to as many fans as possible through a strong lineup of media partners. Enhancing our partnership with ESPN is an important first step in that process.”
To say MLB has been aggressive in gaining new media real estate would be a vast understatement. Ditto for ESPN, which started to work new media rights into some deals before many competitors.
Update: Richard Sandomir puts the deal’s value (reg. req.) to MLB at roughly $2.4 billion. MLB president and COO Bob DuPuy told Sandomir he wasn’t worried about a glut of games between the league’s various media partners. “The idea is to give fans the options to watch games whenever and wherever they want,”
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