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ESPN lands eight-year Major League Baseball deal

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 13:31 CDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. sports cable network ESPN on Wednesday said it reached an agreement to extend its contract with Major League Baseball to broadcast regular-season games for eight years.

The new contract, which ends in 2013, extends one that was set to end in 2005. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The pact gives ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney Co., the right to air up to 80 regular-season games, including Sunday, Monday and Wednesday night games, and the right to offer programming across its Web site and digital devices such as cellphones.

The deal raises questions about Comcast Corp.'s plans to acquire additional sports rights to raise the profile of its OLN network, which recently gained rights to National Hockey League games. Wall Street has widely expected Comcast to bid for rights to air baseball games.

"We do not have the exclusive national cable rights here," George Bodenheimer, ESPN and ABC Sports president, said on a conference call.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig declined to comment on whether discussions were held with Comcast, but said, "We have flexibility in the future."

Separately, the league has a deal with News Corp.'s Fox network, which owns the rights to air post-season games. That contract runs through 2006.

MLB has moved to improve its visibility over the past two years. It approved the creation of a national cable TV channel last year featuring archives of classic baseball games and interviews.

Source: REUTERS

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