ESPN’s looming MLB opt-out could affect negotiations across sports media

With NBA TV rights and the expanded college football playoffs deals coming up over the next two years, there is another factor that could emerge to impact those and future negotiations.

As part of its current MLB deal, ESPN has an opt-out after the 2025 season, The Post has learned.

To be clear, it is two years away, but when you look at what ESPN is paying for Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and the wild-card playoff round, this little clause could come into play.

What you need to know:

1. ESPN is in the midst of a seven year-deal that extends through the 2028 season.

The current deal lowered what ESPN pays MLB to $550 million per season. It breaks down at about $100 million for the playoffs and the rest for Sunday Night Baseball, some exclusive-window games (such as Opening Day), the Home Run Derby and a daily ESPN+ game that is blacked out locally.

2. Though ESPN’s MLB wild-card-round ratings were down 18 percent this year (2.25 million on average for eight games) as none of the four series went to a crucial win-or-go-home Game 3, the real issue is SNB.

3. SNB ratings were respectable, but dropped 2 percent this season. This decrease was likely because of the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets being terrible. SNB still averaged in the range of 1.5 million viewers. This is what SNB consistently rates year after year. So there wasn’t a significant dropoff, but these numbers don’t necessarily add up with the amount of money they’re spending.

4. It’s still early for any decision to be made on the opt-out, but it is pretty unimaginable that ESPN executives won’t ask themselves whether using that half-a-billion-plus in MLB money for the NBA or the expanded college football playoffs would be wiser. They also may just want to save the dough.

5. Something to watch: ESPN wants to be the solution to MLB’s local television issue. Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy eventually could result in MLB finding a new landing spot for its teams that don’t have strong regional sports networks. Diamond Sports airs 14 teams — the Pirates and Diamondbacks already have an arrangement with MLB to broadcast and stream games.

ESPN+ wants to have a tier where a team’s fans can pay an extra fee for its local games. Is there something that can be worked out between MLB and ESPN? This could become even more attractive to MLB in 2025, when, as we reported, ESPN is very likely to have its full offering as a direct-to-consumer product. (ESPN would also like to be the solution for the RSN issue the NBA and NHL are facing.)

Could MLB and ESPN come up with a new local deal to assuage any angst?

6. ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro is a big advocate for baseball. He is a huge Yankees fan who often does work in the evenings with YES on in the background.

7. MLB also has an opt-out, according to sources, though the issue with that end of the deal is: Who else would pay that level of money for SNB?

Fox has been offered an MLB package in the past, but has never bit. Turner likes its Tuesday night, non-exclusive package and really is in MLB for the playoffs. The streamers, Apple TV+ and Peacock, don’t release numbers, but it is hard to believe their respective Friday and Sunday packages are making that big of an impact.

(For this, my golden rule of TV ratings press releases is: If there aren’t any, that means the numbers are poor. The other is: If press releases are too long, that is a bad sign.)

8. The issue for national regular-season TV baseball is the exact same game is usually played the prior day and the next day. It is difficult to make it feel special in a connected world, where nearly every game is accessible.

9. Here is a little, somewhat related news: On TBS’ Tuesday regular-season-game package, there is a chance that it gets access to more local markets, according to sources. They would not be exclusive. It means if, say the Yankees were on TBS, the game could be available in the New York market, as well as on YES.

Quick Clicks

Doc Rivers is part of ABC/ESPN’s new lead NBA team, partnering with Mike Breen and Doris Burke as they replace the fired Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. On a conference call on Friday, Rivers said he has made no promises to ESPN about not returning to the sidelines. He said he does not know whether or not he will have the itch to coach again. He did say he has enjoyed his offseason, traveling a bunch, including vacationing with Breen in Ireland. Rivers added that he and Breen have been great friends for two decades and have frequently taken offseason trips together.

… The radio voice of the World Series is a legendary spot in baseball broadcasting history. This year, Jon Sciambi ascended to the ESPN Radio World Series booth, succeeding Dan Shulman. Sciambi, who oddly has been passed over perennially for the “Sunday Night Baseball” lead TV play-by-play role, has earned the spot. He has done Sunday night regular season and playoffs for 10 years. Sciambi is also the Cubs’ TV play-by-player. Shulman is one of the best ever to call baseball. His precision on radio was immaculate. He’ll continue to call Blue Jays TV games.

… The unintentional comedy award goes to Fox Sports’ Alex Rodriguez, who said on WFAN that his TV opinions are part of why his Yankees No. 13 hasn’t been retired. Nice try, A-Rod. It just may be about being suspended for a year because of performance-enhancing-drug use and then going all Lance Armstrong on everyone, suing, lying and trying to ruin anyone in Rodriguez’s way. Those wounds healed a bit because Rodriguez came back and hit home runs for a season while avoiding problems before transitioning to post-retirement careers in media and as a celebrity investor. Rodriguez also said with the FAN’s Tiki Barber and Evan Roberts that he would have taken half off from the Mets in 2000 instead of going to the Texas Rangers for $252 million. This is such an old story, and the Mets’ regime at the time did not act honorably with the whole “24-plus-one” smear, which, even if true, wasn’t fair. But the idea that A-Rod would act as if taking 50 cents on the dollar was a real possibility is either hilarious or delusional. I covered the Mets in 2000, the Yankees during A-Rod’s Biogenesis soap opera and now his media career. The interview with Barber and Roberts may not have been the funniest one Rodriguez ever has done on WFAN, but it was pretty good.

… Lou Williams, who played 16 years in the NBA, is joining FanDuel TV, according to sources. He will be part of “Run It Back,” which enters its second season and features Michelle Beadle, Shams Charania and Chandler Parsons.