MLB, Fox and Turner finally make TV deals official
MLB today formally announce already
TV extensions with Fox and Turner Sports' TBS.
Through those eight-year deals, along with MLB's recent extension with ESPN, MLB will more than double its overall annual national TV rights fees to about 1.5 billion.
Why the big increases in TV rights fees?
One small factor is that long-term deals should logically include some increases to account for inflation.
A larger factor is that many major sports properties are already locked up in long-term TV deals, making any remaining marquee TV packages more scarce -- and thus more valuable.
And there's the broader trend: As consumers steadily move towards watching TV on an on-demand basis -- watching what they want, when they want and thus being able to skip over TV commercials -- live sports becomes relatively immune to being watched on a taped basis.
On-air, little will change in the new deals.
The biggest change: Fox will get two League Divisional Series each year, possibly for use on a general-interest sports channel it might launch next year by rebranding its motorsports-driven Speed channel.
Fox, which will pay about $520 million annually in its new deal, will retain the World Series, one League Championship Series each year, the All-Star Game and Saturday regular-season action. Fox will also let MLB Network get some of its LDS action go to Fox.
TBS, paying about $325 million annually, will keep two LDS -- down from its current four -- and will retain one LCS as well its Sunday afternoon regular-season games.
Along with ESPN's $700 annual rights fees, the eight-year deals total about $12.4 billion. By contrast, the NFL last year signed nine-year extensions with its network carriers whose TV rights fees -- not including revenues from games on the league's own NFL Network -- total over $4.3 billion annually.