Local TV Money = Winning in Baseball

Six big questions re: baseball + local TV:
1) How much does Major League Baseball generate from media rights?
2) What share of media rights revenue comes from local TV?
3) Which teams generate the most revenue from local TV rights?
4) How many teams have launched their direct-to-consumer (DTC) offering?
5) How much does buying a Major League Baseball (MLB) team cost?
6) How long is the average Major League Baseball game?

Big question #1: How much does Major League Baseball generate from media rights?

Quick answer: ≈$5.3B (44%) of Major League Baseball’s revenue comes from media rights.

Share of revenue from media rights according to Sportico:
1) NFL - 68%
2) NBA - 52%
3) MLB - 44%
4) NHL - 30%

Big deal: ESPN is opting out of its portion of the national TV deal (2026-28), which is valued at $550M per year and has three years remaining.

Why this matters: ESPN has been airing MLB games for 35 years, and their deal makes up 27% of MLB’s national media revenue.

What happens next: MLB will sell the media rights for the final 3 years of the deal. In 2029, they want to combine national and local for a monster NFL/NBA type deal.

Quote from Alex Sherman - Media & Sports Reporter @ CNBC:
“MLB wants to offer a national package of local games, potentially giving a media partner the ability to sell them in a more flexible way. There are no concrete details, because we’re still years away, but the conceit is that removing local blackout rules by selling a huge swath of local games to a streamer could bring in big bucks for the league. And because the games are local and not national, reach isn’t as important as flexible accessibility.”

Bull case for MLB: It only takes one streamer with money to burn to generate more than the $550M per year that ESPN was paying.

Quote from Michael Rubin - CEO @ Fanatics:
“Do I think baseball will get more for their media rights than what ESPN walked away from? I think the answer is yes. A lot of times you have one person that says ‘this isn’t worth that,’ and then two streamers show up and pay three times that.”

Bear case for MLB: Baseball’s audience is old, and not every sports league (see English Premier League) is growing media rights revenue.

Average age for TV viewers by league according to TGL:
1) NBA - 50
2) NFL - 54
3) MLB - 60

Quote from Kevin Mayer - CEO @ Candle Media:
“Gravity takes hold on everything. At some point, these rights cannot continue to grow at this pace, two to three times every 10 years.”

Big question #2: What share of media rights revenue comes from local TV?

Quick answer: 19%.  The highest of any of the four largest U.S. sports leagues.

Share of revenue from local TV according to Sportico:
1) MLB - 19%
2) NBA - 12%
3) NHL - 11%
4) NFL - 1%

Big question #3: Which teams generate the most revenue from local TV rights?

MLB teams with the highest annual rights fees for local TV, according to Kagan:
1) Los Angeles Dodgers - $334M
2) New York Yankees - $217M
3) Los Angeles Angels - $172M
4) Chicago Cubs - $132M
5) New York Mets - $128M

Wow #1: The Dodgers’ local deal is larger than the bottom 10 teams combined!

Flashback: Shotime and the Story of Baseball’s Haves and Have Nots

Wow #2: In 2023, Bally Sports (Diamond Sports Group) held the local rights for 18 MLB teams.  Since then, 15 teams (83%) have seen their local media rights reduced!

Why this matters: More local revenue = more winning.

Average market size for teams that have played for a championship over the past 10 years, according to Joel Litvin:
1) NHL - 18
2) NFL - 16
3) NBA - 14
4) NBA - 7

Why this matters: The average NHL team playing for a championship fell into the bottom half of markets by size, while the average MLB team fell into the upper 1/3.

Big question #4: How many teams have launched their direct-to-consumer (DTC) offering?

Quick answer: 27 of the 30 teams (90%) will have a direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming offering in 2025.

Flashback: The RSN Streaming Race Has Begun

Big question #5: How much does buying a Major League Baseball (MLB) team cost?

MLB franchise value (YoY growth) according to Forbes:
1) 2016 - $1.3B (↑ 7%)
2) 2017 - $1.5B (↑ 19%)
3) 2018 - $1.7B (↑ 7%)
4) 2019 - $1.8B (↑ 8%)
5) 2020 - $1.9B (↑ 4%)
6) 2021 - $1.9B (↑ 3%)
7) 2022 - $2.1B (↑ 9%)
8) 2023 - $2.3B (↑ 12%)
9) 2024 - $2.4B (↑ 3%)
10) 2025 - $2.6B (↑ 8%)

Top five MLB franchises by value (YoY growth):
1) New York Yankees - $8.2B (↑ 9%)
2) Los Angeles Dodgers - $6.9B (↑ 27%)
3) Boston Red Sox - $4.8B (↑ 7%)
4) Chicago Cubs - $4.6B (↑ 9%)
5) San Francisco Giants - $4.0B (↑ 5%)

Big question #6: How long is the average Major League Baseball game?

Average length of MLB game (YoY growth) according to Baseball Reference:
1) 2022 - 3h 10m
2) 2023 - 2h 39m (↓ 16%)
4) 2024 - 2h 36m (↓ 2%)