Major League Baseball On Cable Television - 2000s

2000s

ESPN and ESPN2 had contracts (which were signed in 2000 and ran through 2005) to show selected weeknight and Sunday night games, along with selected Division Series playoff games. The contracts with ESPN were worth $141.8 million per year and $851 million overall. After Disney bought Fox Family (who from 2000–2001 aired Thursday night games) in 2002 to become ABC Family the Division Series games aired on ABC Family (with ESPN's announcers, graphics, and music) for one year. ESPN then added the extra playoff games and Thursday night package to its lineup.

The Fox Broadcasting Company's sister network FX aired numerous Major League Baseball contests on Saturday nights in 2001.

OLN was briefly considering picking up the rights to the Sunday and Wednesday games, which expired after the 2005 season. On September 14, 2005 however, ESPN, then the current rights holder, signed an eight year contract with Major League Baseball, highlighted by the continuation of ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball series with additional, exclusive team appearances. The key details of the agreement were:

• Up to 80 regular-season telecasts per year;
• No blackout restrictions on exclusive Sunday Night Baseball; Monday Night Baseball, with ESPN mostly coexisting with local carriers
• Up to five appearances per team per year on the exclusive Sunday Night Baseball series, up from 11 over three years;
• Daily Baseball Tonight programs – one of ESPN's most popular series—including the continued right to show in-progress highlights and live cut-ins;
• MLB Home Run Derby, ESPN's highest-rated program of the summer and one of cable's best, and additional All-Star programming;
• Continuation of season-long Wednesday baseball on ESPN and ESPN2
• A new afternoon batting practice program, generally from the site of ESPN's Monday night telecast;
• For the first time, the 11 p.m. ET SportsCenter presents a nightly Baseball Tonight update featuring in-progress highlights;
• Select games and MLB All-Star events on ESPN2 throughout the season;
• 10 spring training games and MLB Opening Day coverage;
• Telecast rights for ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ESPN Deportes and ESPN International;
• 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;
• Archival footage and game programming and Instant Classic rights for ESPN Classic.

ESPN's Monday and Wednesday telecasts would be mostly nonexclusive, meaning the games also can be televised by each club's local broadcasters. Wednesday games will be blacked out in the teams' local markets (and anywhere their broadcasters reach), except if they would otherwise go untelevised. Monday games will usually see ESPN co-exist with local broadcasters. The Sunday games remain on ESPN only, and with ESPN gaining the rights to Monday Night Football telecasts, Sunday Night Baseball currently runs uninterrupted throughout the season.

The sport averages $296 million under the new agreement, a television and a baseball official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a confidentiality agreement in the deal. ESPN paid baseball $273.5 million in 2006, increasing to $293.5 million in each of the following four years, $308.5 million in 2011 and $306 million in each of the final two seasons.