Rob Manfred may not have a taker lined up for ESPN’s expiring media rights package, but as MLB slides into the All-Star break, the commissioner can take comfort in the league’s ongoing ratings gains.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, MLB’s three national TV partners have been putting up strong numbers since the season teed off in late March, as Fox, ESPN and TBS are enjoying year-over-year audience growth. Fox’s Saturday Baseball Night in America package is averaging a league-high 2.14 million viewers per window, up 4% versus the year-ago period and giving the network its strongest midway deliveries in four years.
Fox’s biggest TV turnout to date arrived courtesy of its coverage of the June 7 Red Sox-Yankees grudge match, which served up 3.05 million viewers. That marks the largest draw for a regular-season MLB game on any network since 2022. (As a side note, the broadcast gained an additional 18,000 viewers in the seven days following the live transmission. Those delayed/time-shifted impressions accounted for just 0.6% of Fox’s total deliveries for the game.)
Boston’s Garrett Crochet whiffed Aaron Judge three times as the Sox prevailed over their AL East rivals, 10-7. On an otherwise sleepy night for sports, Fox’s only real competition came via CBS’ broadcast of the Indiana Fever’s 79-52 rout of the Chicago Sky; despite the absence of an injured Caitlin Clark, the WNBA outing averaged a sturdy 1.92 million viewers.
Also drawing a crowd is ESPN, which is currently averaging 1.75 million viewers per game care of its Sunday Night Baseball showcase. That marks an 11% year-over-year improvement and gives Bristol bragging rights for its best first-half MLB deliveries since 2017.
ESPN notched its top draw of the season thus far on June 1, as the Yankees-Dodgers World Series rematch averaged 2.73 million viewers, peaking at 3.09 million. New York managed to avoid a series sweep with a 7-3 road win that saw Judge and Shohei Ohtani go hitless.
Rounding off the league’s national TV offerings is TBS, which is averaging 358,000 viewers per outing with its non-exclusive Tuesday night telecasts, good for a 17% lift compared to the analogous period in 2024.
TBS’ strongest MLB delivery to date arrived on April 1, as the cable network’s Yankees-Diamondbacks opener averaged 491,000 viewers in the primetime slot. (Bear in mind that the game also aired on YES Network in the New York DMA.) Predictably enough, the Yankees have appeared in TBS’ three most-watched MLB telecasts in 2025.
As MLB’s three national TV partners get set for the second half of the season, TBS’ deliveries are at a 10-year high.
While the across-the-board ratings gains would seem to reflect an early emphasis on scheduling the Yankees and Dodgers in the maximum number of available national windows, the league continues to reap the benefits of the accelerated pace of the pitch-clock era. Also helping juice the numbers a bit is Nielsen’s recent expansion of its out-of-home sample, which has given the networks credit for impressions delivered in bars, restaurants and other public venues in all 210 TV markets.
Last month, Manfred said he was “hopeful” that MLB would be in a position to announce a successor to ESPN before the first pitch of the All-Star Game. although a replacement has yet to materialize. Both parties opted out of their 35-year partnership in February, although talks between the two camps started up again a few weeks ago.
At the time of the split, ESPN had three seasons remaining on a contract valued at $550 million per year. Along with the Sunday Night Baseball package, ESPN also has the exclusive rights to the Home Run Derby and a slate of up to a dozen playoff games. In the event the latest talks fail to bear fruit, the long-running relationship between the league and the cable giant will expire in October.
Among the outlets said to be kicking the tires on the ESPN package are NBC Sports, Apple and Amazon.
