TV Networks Could Be Rooting For Looming MLB Lockout To Hit A Certain Length Over An Expensive Contract Clause

MLB owners could theoretically lock players out in 2027 while trying to win a labor fight over things like a salary cap. There is now one fairly expensive reason they might not want that fight lasting too long: miss 60 games per team, and some television networks apparently get an extra year of baseball.

Most of MLB’s national television agreements contain provisions that would automatically extend them from 2028 through 2029 if a work stoppage wipes out at least 60 games from each club’s 2027 schedule. The Athletic detailed the contract language reported by The Athletic, potentially turning Game No. 60 into one of the strangest deadlines in baseball’s upcoming labor battle.

MLB Could Lock Itself Into Its Old TV Deals

The problem is not simply losing 60 games of ticket sales.

MLB is preparing for a much larger overhaul of its media business after the 2028 season, when its national deals are currently scheduled to expire.

The league already makes roughly $2 billion annually from national media rights across partners including Fox, TNT Sports, ESPN, NBC, Apple and Netflix. MLB’s newest rights agreements with ESPN, NBC and Netflix were deliberately structured to end after 2028 alongside the existing Fox, TNT and Apple contracts.

That gives baseball an opportunity to bring essentially everything back to market at once.

Or at least it does unless the lockout goes 60 games too far.

If that threshold is crossed, the affected broadcasters would receive an additional season through 2029, delaying MLB’s chance to negotiate a new package until the following year.

That could get extremely expensive.

The NBA’s newest national media agreements average roughly $7 billion per year, while the NFL receives more than $11 billion annually. Nobody should expect MLB to suddenly collect NFL money, but owners clearly believe baseball’s next consolidated rights package can produce substantial growth.

It would be pretty incredible to accidentally postpone that payday because the owners themselves canceled too much baseball.

The 60th Game Would Arrive Around Late May

The timing creates an unusually specific pressure point.

MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, and an owner-imposed lockout is widely expected if the league and MLBPA cannot reach another agreement.

The 2027 season is scheduled to begin March 24, the earliest traditional start in league history.

Sixty missed games would push the shutdown to roughly late May, depending on any schedule changes created by the lockout.

There is another weird layer.

Reports indicate national broadcasters would continue paying MLB its contracted 2027 rights fees even while games were canceled, with the extra 2029 season essentially serving as compensation. If the entire season disappeared, some networks could receive 2029 without paying another rights fee at all.

So television money could initially help owners survive a lockout before eventually becoming a major reason to end one.

That is quite the incentive structure.

Owners might enter negotiations willing to sacrifice games to get the labor system they want. They just probably do not want to sacrifice Game No. 60.