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The owners made two big decisions at the owners meetings and both times they decided to continue with the status quo.
Major League Baseball and Fox Sports reached an agreement on a new broadcasting agreement that will keep Fox Sports as the broadcaster of the World Series and All-Star Game through the 2028 season. This includes both the English and Spanish-language rights. Fox will also continue to broadcast one League Championship Series, two Division Series and 52 Saturday “Games of the Week.”
In another move that had been widely predicted, the owners voted to give commissioner Rob Manfred an extension on his current deal through the 2024 season.
The agreement with Fox Sports keeps the current broadcast setup for MLB’s major events in place for the next decade. This means that the MLB Network will continue to broadcast two games from one of the League Division Series that Fox Sports has the rights to. In addition, Fox Sports has expanded rights to streaming video, social media and video highlights, although what exactly that means wasn’t announced with the rest of the deal. Fox Sports will also have the rights to “special event games” that will be negotiated with MLB over the course of the contract.
Commissioner Manfred was widely expected to receive a contract extension at the owners meeting. The five-year deal will leave Manfred in charge through the next collective bargaining agreement with the Players’ Association.
These two deals leave the status quo since 2014 in place through at least 2024 and through 2028 on the baseball side. The broadcast deal gives Fox Sports the rights to the same games they’ve had since 2014 and commissioner Manfred was elected to replace commissioner Bud Selig in August of 2014.