Alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I can report that ESPN and Main Street Sports (née Diamond), which owns the FanDuel–branded R.S.N.s, are talking. But these discussions have thus far focused on a marketing push that would bundle both companies’ direct-to-consumer offerings for a fee, akin to the WBD-Disney deal that combines Disney+, Hulu, and Max D.T.C. People familiar with the talks say the parties are not focused on an arrangement akin to the one Main Street has with Amazon, which would have allowed ESPN to offer the Main Street R.S.N.s as an add-on to its direct-to-consumer service. That’s an important distinction. Indeed, several sports business executives, including league sources, believed that ESPN was trying to come up with a cost-effective way to carry MLB games after its contract runs out this fall. Pitaro has often spoken about the potential of turning ESPN’s digital platforms into a sports hub that can direct viewers to games on other platforms—described in Bristol as the “Where to Watch” strategy—and this is where talks with Main Street were initially focused. The hub concept would resemble the arrangement ESPN currently has with Monumental Sports Network, NESN, and SportsNet Pittsburgh, where it provides links on its website and app that send users to R.S.N. streaming services where they can watch the games. The key distinction, obviously, is that the games aren’t on an ESPN platform; users are pushed to the R.S.N.s’ streaming platform and either log in through their cable or satellite account, or buy a D.T.C. subscription directly from the R.S.N. But talks progressed rapidly and soon coalesced around bundling strategy. Both ESPN executives and Main Street’s David Preschlack viewed the WBD-Disney D.T.C. bundle as a template. Notably, ESPN is not talking about acquiring the rights to Main Street’s teams. Rather, Bristol executives have told Main Street that they will use ESPN’s reach to drive subscribers and engagement back to Main Street’s D.T.C. services. Sources describe talks on both these issues as far along, though no announcement is planned in the next few weeks. An understated goal for both companies is for ESPN to eventually offer the FanDuel R.S.N.s as add-on packages to its ESPN+ and Flagship subscribers, but sources insist that this is not part of the current talks—and probably won’t be anytime soon. Last November, Main Street entered into a deal to make its channels available on Amazon Prime, a deal that precludes other media companies from pursuing a similar framework for an undetermined length of time. To cut the Amazon deal, Main Street needed MLB’s approval. I can’t imagine the league would rubber-stamp a similar deal with a network that just walked away from a national package of games.