ESPN "very well could make a run" at Turner's MLB postseason games, including an LCS every year, according to Andrew Marchand of the N.Y. POST. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro and his Disney bosses will "likely try to add" more baseball to ESPN+, and to "make it work, as a subscriber driver, there likely would need to be some exclusivity." Turner still has its MLB rights for two more years, and is "waiting for its new parent company, AT&T, to fully take over." Turner "may want to continue" with MLB, but it is "unclear how aggressive AT&T will want to be" (N.Y. POST, 1/31). FORBES' Maury Brown cited sources as saying that ESPN is "actively in negotiations" with MLB for an extension of their media rights to show live games. A new deal would "come on the heels" of Fox reaching an extension that runs for seven years beginning in '22 for $5.1B. ESPN's current agreement with MLB expires in '21, and has a total value of $5.6B over an eight-year span. There had been "some questions as to whether ESPN was fully committed to baseball content" with the news that "Baseball Tonight" would "stop as a daily show." In some ways, the news that ESPN will "continue to provide MLB content should come as no surprise given commitments that have already transpired around baseball" (FORBES.com, 1/30).
