CNBC Sport: MLB Commissioner says Sunday media rights could go to NBC, Apple — or back to ESPN

Published Thu, Jul 17 202510:00 AM EDT

Alex Sherman @in/alex-sherman @sherman4949

Key Points

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed NBC, Apple and ESPN are the three bidders for the league's "Sunday Night Baseball" package, which ESPN opted out of earlier this year.
Manfred said he plans to choose a winner for those rights within the month and that they could be split up between two bidders.
Manfred said he's in talks to include five MLB teams' local rights in these renewed discussions.

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Welcome to the end of the slowest U.S. sports week of the year! Fortunately, I can help you fill the void a bit. In anticipation of the MLB All-Star Game, I flew down to Atlanta this week to chat with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred . You can watch (or listen to) the wide-ranging interview in this week's On The Record, below. Manfred broke some news in our sitdown. He confirmed NBC, Apple and ESPN are the three bidders for the league's "Sunday Night Baseball" package, which ESPN opted out of earlier this year. Manfred told me he plans to choose a winner for those rights within the month and that they could be split up between two bidders. The reemergence of ESPN as a potential home for "Sunday Night Baseball" is both surprising and not surprising. It's surprising given Manfred's blunt comments after ESPN chose not to pay an average of $550 million a year for the last three years of the rights. "We do not think it's beneficial for us to accept a smaller deal to remain on a shrinking platform," Manfred wrote to MLB owners in February in a memo first obtained by The Athletic. That seemed to close the door on ESPN. And yet, here ESPN is back in the mix. Manfred may be able to strike a deal with ESPN without going back on his word to owners: He told me he's in talks to include five MLB teams' local rights in these renewed discussions. MLB currently produces and distributes local games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres. If ESPN were to strike a deal with MLB, it would want those rights immediately – in time for the 2026 season. This isn't surprising. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro has publicly spoken about his desire to be part of MLB's long-term local solution as the league moves away from relying on regional sports networks for the majority of its local revenue. ESPN could pay more to get those local rights and include them with its soon-to-be-launched direct-to-consumer service. It will be interesting to see if MLB can get north of $550 million if it splits the package between two bidders. That could allow Manfred to not just save face with MLB owners but even score a win. ESPN sources tell me there's renewed optimism a deal can be struck with MLB – when a few weeks ago it looked like a long shot. One reason ESPN's return to the table isn't a shock — ratings for ESPN's MLB games are up 6% from last season, averaging 1.71 million viewers per game. That's the highest average audience at the All-Star break in eight years. Home Run Derby ratings this week were up 5% over last year. That aired on ESPN, and those rights are part of the vacated "Sunday Night" package for 2026-2028. Given ESPN's influence on American sports, it probably behooves MLB to stay in business with the Disney division. Now it'll be up to ESPN to pay enough to keep Manfred satisfied. A deal will almost certainly be just a three-year agreement, so that MLB can reorganize its media rights after the 2028 season. "Our goal would be to accumulate all of our rights (national and local), go to the table, and develop in concert with the potential buyers packages that are most valuable to them," Manfred told me. "I think our goals would be to have more national exposure, increase our reach. In addition, we think we have a cluttered environment right now. There's a lot of places you have to go if you're a fan of a particular team, and we think that we should strive to create a more fan friendly environment." Manfred also suggested that pooling local rights and distributing that revenue among all of MLB's 30 teams could replace the league's current revenue-sharing system. He was a little cryptic here, so I'll include the full back-and-forth: Alex : From a local standpoint, what do you need to do to get buy in from all of the teams to say, "You know what? It makes sense for us to give our rights to the league so that they can do what they want with it." Manfred : The best way to explain it, I think, is that when people speculate about this, they assume we're going to make this media change only. That is really not the case. There is a bigger set of changes involving a larger set of tradeoffs between large and small markets that I'm very confident will put us in a position to accomplish what we need to do. Alex : What do you mean? Elaborate on that. Manfred : Well, I'm going to be a little limited here. But for example, if, in fact, you centralize your media, and the revenue from those media streams are shared 1/30th, there's much less need for the kind of local revenue sharing system that we have today. For the large markets, whose payments into that system escalate as disparity grows, that's very appealing. It's also very appealing from an incentive perspective, because you get rid of what is essentially a 48% marginal tax rate. Manfred's marginal tax rate comment has to do with teams being forced to pay taxes on local revenue into the shared pool. His argument here is he may be able to convince big-market teams with profitable RSNs to hand streaming rights over to the league if a new system can be put in place that avoids the taxation. Manfred admitted to me that some of this may be subject to the MLB's collective bargaining agreement – which is set to be renewed after the 2026 season. Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. On the record With Manfred ... I asked Manfred about the two elephants in the room regarding that upcoming CBA: 1. Do you expect a lockout? 2. Will you push for a salary cap? He told me owners haven't "discussed" or "decided" either of those things yet. Still, he admitted the league has a competitive balance problem on its hands when it comes to team spend. "Sports sell competition," Manfred said. "We do have fans in a significant number of our markets who are really concerned about the issue of competitive balance and the competitiveness of the teams in their markets, and it's something we're going to have to pay attention to." I pushed Manfred a bit regarding the salary cap. Critics of a cap note it wouldn't solve arguably MLB's biggest spending problem – which isn't that the Dodgers or Mets spend too much, it's that the Pittsburgh Pirates, Athletics, Miami Marlins and other teams spend too little. A salary floor, rather than a cap, could force certain small-market owners to spend more on players. Manfred said he's open to a floor but cautioned a cap would probably come with it. "I do agree with the idea that a salary floor is an important part of the system, and in fact, every salary cap system also includes a salary floor. Rarely, however, in collective bargaining, do you get a change that goes only one direction," he said. I also asked Manfred about the potential of robot umpires calling balls and strikes. "The fact of the matter is, it's an automated system that helps the umpire," said Manfred. "The umpire doesn't become a robot. You know, he's still the man behind the plate that runs the game." And I asked him about expansion and how much he'd charge for potential expansion fees, given the WNBA just got $250 million per team for its three new teams. Manfred said he couldn't even estimate because "it would probably lowball where we'll end up being." He did guarantee it'll be a number in the billions. Also, for the A's fans (like myself) … Manfred said the Athletics relocation is now "resolved," and that the team is full-go to move to Las Vegas. "I was out there a couple weeks ago, shovels in the ground. We're going to Vegas," Manfred said. You can watch our entire conversation here . Or listen here and follow the CNBC Sport podcast if you prefer the audio version. CNBC Sport highlight reel The best of CNBC Sport from the past week: Media companies are increasingly elevating executives with a finance-first focus rather than a content-first outlook, reports CNBC's Lillian Rizzo . That could significantly affect the fates of which sports rights end up with which TV networks and streaming platforms in the future. CNBC's Julia Boorstin sat down with new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp at Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley media and tech conference. Rolapp was previously the NFL's chief media and business officer. Boorstin asked him about the potential combination of LIV Golf and the PGA and how to grow the Tour's digital footprint. Portland's WNBA team will be called the Portland Fire – a callback to Portland's previous WNBA team that existed from 2000 to 2002. The team begins play during the 2026 season at the Moda Center in downtown Portland and has a new logo, reports CNBC's Ali McCadden . U.S. soccer legend Alex Morgan and NFL Pro Bowlers C.J. Stroud and Micah Parsons are backing a new company that makes premade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches called Jams. CNBC's Jess Golden reports Jams will be available exclusively at 3,000 Walmart stores nationwide. The big number: 38 That's how many home runs Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh has at the All-Star break – the second-most ever at the break and just one fewer than the record from Barry Bonds in 2001, the year he hit 73. Raleigh isn't even close to a household name, although his nickname – the Big Dumper – is gaining social media traction . I asked Manfred if there's anything he can do to jumpstart the star power of MLB's newer talents. "We think we've made huge strides in the last few years in terms of [social media] presence," Manfred said. "It's not just followers, it's engagement. How much engagement are you getting with that content that you're putting out there? So, you have to work at it. Some of our markets are obviously bigger than others, and it's easier. But when you have talent like Cal has, people are going to figure out who you are." Quote of the week "We don't feel quite the need to experiment with the game that maybe some other sports does, because ours is widely regarded to be the best of the all-star performance." — Manfred on if he'd consider a U.S. vs. World approach for the All-Star game, like the NHL has embraced and the NBA will adopt for next season. Around the league Pretty much every year, whatever media company has Super Bowl rights begins charging a record high price for 30-second TV commercials. Well, guess what? NBC already wants a record $8 million for a 30-second spot, AdWeek reports . While Fox Sports sold some spots for $8 million last year, Fox initially priced ads around $7 million, AdWeek noted. This year, NBC is going with $8 million from the jump – a figure that will likely rise as the game draws closer. I enjoyed this delightful episode of "Pablo Torre Finds Out" about the Malik Beasley NBA gambling investigation and the surprising link to Jontay Porter, the ex-NBA player who already pled guilty to a gambling scheme. The NBA is already exploring expansion opportunities, Commissioner Adam Silver said this week . He noted that he wants more clarity on the future of regional sports networks and local TV revenue before making a decision.