Major League Baseball has new three-year agreements with a trio of entertainment giants for the 2026-28 seasons, the league announced Wednesday.
ESPN, NBC Universal, and Netflix are divvying up significant pieces of the pie, but the renewed covenant with ESPN is the notable headliner. For much of the last year it seemed they were on the precipice of uncoupling after over three decades, after the two “mutually agreed” to end their agreement last February, three years before the seven-year extension they signed in ’21 was due to expire.
Now, they will be more intertwined than ever in what ESPN’s press release called “a new fan-focused, multi-faceted agreement.”
Starting in ’26, ESPN will be the exclusive rights-holder to MLB.TV, with all out-of-market games available to stream live and on-demand on both the ESPN app and MLB platforms. ESPN Unlimited subscribers will also be able to watch over 150 out-of-market MLB games each season as part of the ‘game of the day’ feature, and MLB.TV subscribers will have access to MLB Network’s 24/7 programming and “over 50,000 other sports events and content from ESPN’s family of networks.”
ESPN is also six MLB teams’ new local in-market streaming home: the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Colorado Rockies. The Disney-owned sports media conglomerate will also retain MLB studio rights for ‘Baseball Tonight,’ the MLB Little League Classic, and add Memorial Day and second-half opener games to its slate.
(Courtesy of ESPN Images)
While ESPN’s MLB foothold increases immensely with their new agreement, several notable facets of their longtime partnership are ending. Sunday Night Baseball, an ESPN exclusive since 1990, will now be on NBCUniversal, as will the entire Wild Card round of the postseason.
These agreements mark a true homecoming for NBC, which in 1939 broadcast the first-ever televised baseball game between Princeton University and Columbia University on May 17, and the first MLB game between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in New York on Aug. 26. NBC aired MLB games regularly from 1947-89 and from 1994-95 on the short-lived The Baseball Network in partnership with ABC. Select postseason rounds were also broadcast on NBC until 2000.
After a two-decade hiatus, regular-season baseball returned to NBC and its streaming service Peacock in 2022 in the former of ‘Sunday Leadoff.’ NBC, which celebrates its centennial in 2026, will bring back Sunday Leadoff in a package of 18 games.
Netflix is the new kid on the block. Its baseball footprint will be smaller, but noteworthy nonetheless as it takes on an Opening Night exclusive, MLB’s ’26 Field of Dreams game and the ’26 World Baseball Classic games in Japan.
All three platforms will enjoy a share of MLB’s All-Star Week festivities. NBC and Peacock will present the first hour of the MLB Draft, the Futures Game, and a new player-centric event. Netflix is taking over ESPN’s Home Run Derby duties.
According to ESPN, this trio of partnerships will average “nearly $800 million per year.”