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Morning Edition

August 20, 2025

Many eyes have been on MLB’s media rights after ESPN opted out of its deal earlier this year. The league now appears close to a wide-ranging shakeup which would see ESPN re-enter in a different role, joined by Netflix and NBC—with Apple exiting its deal. Sources tell FOS ESPN is particularly interested in local rights. Here’s what we know.

— Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

MLB Nears Media Shake-Up: ESPN, NBC, Netflix In, Apple Out? [[link removed]]

Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

MLB appears on track to solve its near-term rights conundrum.

Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday [[link removed]] that Apple TV+’s time with Friday Night Baseball would come to an end while NBC and its streaming service Peacock are poised to possibly pick up MLB’s Friday and Sunday night rights, as well as the Wild Card playoff round. Netflix, meanwhile, is expected to get the Home Run Derby. Bloomberg first reported on Netflix’s potential involvement last week.

At the same time, the Yahoo report said ESPN is in talks to subsume MLB’s pioneering MLB.TV [[link removed]], the out-of-market package that has become a gold standard for streaming over the past two decades.

Industry sources told FOS that the local piece is also of particular interest to ESPN. Nearly a year ago, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said he wanted the network to be an answer to the ongoing decline of regional sports networks [[link removed]]. To that end, it’s possible that ESPN will become involved in distributing local MLB games, particularly for the five teams currently operating through the league’s in-house production and distribution model.

Spokespeople for MLB, ESPN, and NBC declined to immediately comment.

In a certain sense of irony, the technical backbone that originally powered MLB.TV [[link removed]] helped MLB Advanced Media to form BAMTech, which ESPN parent company Disney later acquired across multiple tranches, spanning six years, for a total of $3.8 billion. BAMTech is now known as Disney Streaming. Along somewhat similar thematic lines, ESPN recently swapped a 10% equity stake valued at $2.5 billion for the rights to most of NFL Media’s key assets, including NFL Network and the trademark to NFL RedZone.

ESPN opted out of the final three years of its MLB rights earlier this year. The rest of MLB’s national media rights, including those with Fox Sports and TNT Sports, expire in 2028.

Earlier this week, league commissioner Rob Manfred said on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball [[link removed]] that “We’re having very detailed conversations with a number of parties, including ESPN. We hope to have it resolved in the next couple of weeks. It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle.”

Pitaro echoed that hopeful sentiment on Tuesday. After a previously fractured relationship [[link removed]], there has been ongoing dialogue about rebuilding a 35-year tie between the two organizations, albeit in a different context.

“We are engaged [with MLB],” Pitaro said. “What I’ve said is that we’re having healthy conversations with them. There’s nothing to announce today, but we’re very interested in baseball in general, but also local content.”

Should Netflix, still in the midst of a substantial growth wave [[link removed]], succeed in landing Home Run Derby rights, it could also be a blow to Fox Sports. Network sources told FOS that it had interest in expanding its presence in MLB’s All-Star week beyond the Midsummer Classic itself.

For Apple to be out after this season, there would have to be some extra maneuvering, as the tech giant signed a seven-year deal reportedly worth $85 million per year in early 2022, taking the partnership through the 2028 season.

SPONSORED BY PGA TOUR

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Every swing matters as the game’s biggest stars face demanding conditions, electric crowds, and high-stakes moments that could define their seasons. Will Scottie Scheffler go back-to-back? Will Rory McIlroy earn a fourth FedExCup title? Or with an even playing field, will a surprise victor emerge? Marking the end of a season of performance from the world’s best golfers, only one will remain. With the pressure at its peak and no margin for error, the TOUR Championship [[link removed]] is golf at its most intense and inspiring.

Virginia Tech’s Perceived $56M Budget Gap Shows New Challenges [[link removed]]

Melina Myers-Imagn Images

A recent plea from Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock for more athletic department funding showcases the growing number of challenges facing Division I programs—particularly those not at the top of the college sports food chain.

“If you want to compete near the top of the ACC, our budget needs to be $200 million,” Babcock told Virginia Tech’s board of visitors [[link removed]] on Monday, noting the Hokies are projected to spend roughly $144 million during the 2025–26 fiscal year.

That’s a $56 million gap between where Virginia Tech is and where its AD feels like the department needs to be. The Hokies had an operating budget of $122 million during the 2023–24 fiscal year, and were 38th in USA Today’s most recent ranking [[link removed]] of athletic departments’ operating revenue.

During that same fiscal year, Texas became the first D-I public school to report more than $300 million in both revenues and expenses [[link removed]] in the same year—but likely won’t be the last.

Beginning this year, athletic departments can share up to $20.5 million of revenue [[link removed]] with athletes. That’s led to some schools increasing ticket prices for football and basketball games, and even adding student fees to help fund the new expenses [[link removed]].

“If we don’t radically leap forward now, we’re likely sealing our own fate for years and generations to come,” Babcock said.

While Babcock was speaking specifically about Virginia Tech’s situation, his concerns are likely shared by many of his peers throughout the country, as the Big Ten and SEC increasingly gain more power [[link removed]] in college sports. Those two conferences will earn the majority of College Football Playoff revenue beginning in 2026, as the power continues to shift in their direction, and away from the ACC, Big 12, and non–Power 4 conferences.

WNBA Breaks Regular-Season Attendance Record With a Month Left [[link removed]]

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The WNBA surpassed its total regular-season attendance record Friday, another showcase of the league’s continued growth in 2025 [[link removed]].

The WNBA’s previous record of 2,364,736 fans was set in 2002, according to data from Across the Timeline [[link removed]]. It took 215 games to break the mark this season—41 fewer than were played in the entire 2002 season.

The Golden State Valkyries are the biggest drivers of the attendance increase, as they have sold out all 16 home games at Chase Center in their inaugural season (289,024 total attendees).

The Indiana Fever have continued to attract fans—both at home and on the road [[link removed]]—and lead the league in total attendance so far with more than 300,000 fans through 18 home games.

The New York Liberty are also a growth driver, averaging 29% more fans per game this year. They have already surpassed their total attendance from last season by nearly 25,000 fans despite playing three fewer games so far.

Up and Up

The WNBA is averaging more than 11,000 fans per game this year, which would also be a record if the season ended today. However, the season ends Sept. 11, giving the WNBA nearly a full month to significantly increase its record-setting attendance figure.

Ahead of Tuesday’s games, the WNBA has amassed 2,431,739 fans with 65 games left. (The league will finish with 286 games this year, following an increase from 40 to 44 games per team [[link removed]], a league high.)

The WNBA will need to average about 8,750 fans per game for the remainder of the season to pass 3 million attendees. If it can continue its pace of about 11,000 fans per game, the league will finish the 2025 season with nearly 3.15 million attendees—a 33% increase from last season.

Several of the positive attendance anomalies around the league have come when teams move games to arenas with larger capacities—usually when facing the Fever. There are still a few moved games remaining.

The Washington Mystics host the Fever at CFG Bank Arena, which seats about 14,000 fans, on Sept. 7. The Las Vegas Aces host three games at T-Mobile Arena, which seats about 18,000, in September: one against the Minnesota Lynx and two against the Chicago Sky.

$6.2B Nexstar-Tegna Deal Could Create Local Sports Juggernaut [[link removed]]

Daytona Beach News-Journal

Just as over-the-air television asserts a key role in sports broadcasting’s future [[link removed]], a potentially market-shaking deal looks to redefine this part of the industry.

Texas-based Nexstar Media Group has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Tegna Inc. in an all-cash deal that values the fellow broadcaster at $6.2 billion. While not strictly about sports, the deal, if it closes, will create a powerful entity with 265 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, covering 132 of the 210 top television markets, including 9 of the top 10.

Tegna already has a series of local sports rights that includes a growing number of teams in the NBA, MLB, NHL, and WNBA. Nexstar, the controlling parent company of The CW, has a similar—and growing—sports presence [[link removed]] in MLB, the NBA, college football and basketball, LIV Golf, and low-level NASCAR and pro wrestling. Those rights have accumulated as the reach and free consumer access to those stations have provided a key answer to the growing decline of regional sports networks and accelerating cord-cutting [[link removed]].

The deal is projected to close in the second half of next year.

“This transaction comes at a time of rapid change in our industry and reflects the fact that policymakers of all perspectives are calling for regulations governing our industry to be modernized,” said Tegna board chair Howard Elias.

Broader Framework

To Elias’s point, the agreement closely follows a series of other media mega-deals, including Skydance’s $8 billion takeover of CBS Sports parent company Paramount [[link removed]] and the equity deal between ESPN parent company Disney and the NFL [[link removed]]. Amid a generally more permissive regulatory environment under U.S. President Donald Trump, the OTA broadcasters in particular are seeking greater consolidation, in part to compete with streamers such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple, and Netflix that have grown much more aggressive in pursuing sports rights.

At the same time, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, appointed by Trump, said the current cap on television station ownership—amounting to coverage of 39% of all U.S. TV households—is “arcane” and “artificial.”

“The initiatives being pursued by the Trump Administration offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field, and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies that have unchecked reach and vast financial resources,” said Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry A. Sook. “We believe Tegna represents the best option for Nexstar to act on this opportunity.”

There are likely some conditions in that more permissive environment, however. In approving the Skydance-Paramount merger, Carr imposed several requirements [[link removed]], most notably the installation of an ombudsman to oversee CBS News coverage.

Already, some over-the-air broadcasters, notably Sinclair, have been accused of being “Fox Light” and presenting a Trump-friendly viewpoint [[link removed]]. That sentiment could intensify in the push to consolidate and the sizable market overlap in the station maps of Nexstar and Tegna.

“More consolidation is bad for local communities,” Craig Aaron, CEO of public interest group Free Press, said in a blog post [[link removed]]. “Of course, the companies leading the charge for more consolidation see local news only as a vehicle for serving political ads and spreading right-wing propaganda. For them, this is going as planned.”

There are also financial conditions on both sides of the deal. If Tegna terminates the agreement for a better offer, it must pay Nexstar $120 million. If the pact doesn’t close because of regulatory issues, Nexstar must pay Tegna $125 million.

Editors’ note: RedBird Capital Partners backs Skydance and its RedBird IMI division is the majority owner of Front Office Sports.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS LIVE

Ticket Prices Increase Tonight

Front Office Sports returns to The Times Center in Manhattan on Sept. 16 for Tuned In [[link removed]].

This daylong event will feature candid conversations with the biggest names in sports media, including:

Adam Silver, NBA Rob Manfred, MLB Kim Ng, AUSL Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN Eric Shanks, FOX Sports Luis Silberwasser, TNT Sports Jay Marine, Amazon Rick Cordella, NBC Sports Betsy Riley, NBC Olympics Maria Taylor, NBC Sports Ian Eagle, CBS Sports Noah Eagle, NBC Sports

Additionally, Stephen A. Smith and Clay Travis will hit the stage for a fiery debate about sports and politics.

Included in your ticket is a full day of programming, lunch, top-tier networking opportunities, and a post-event cocktail hour.

Ticket prices increase tonight—Aug. 20 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Get your ticket [[link removed]] now for the best price.

Editors’ Picks Utah’s Sports Boom Expands Into Music, Emulating Atlanta [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]The Jazz and Mammoth owner strikes a major deal with Live Nation. Julian Edelman: ‘Outrageous’ NIL Makes Colleges ‘Look Like an NFL Parking Lot’ [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]The Patriots legend called the current state of college football the “Wild West.” Robinhood to Roll Out Football Prediction Markets [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]The new event contracts come on the heels of Kalshi’s expanded football offerings. Question of the Day

Have you noticed the costs of being a college sports fan increasing over the past few years?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Tuesday’s result: 63% of respondents would watch the early rounds of a 28-team College Football Playoff.

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