(Photo by Jose Francisco Morales via Unsplash)
Hearst Television has secured a new agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays to air a package of games across four Florida markets during the 2026 Major League Baseball season.
Under the deal, 10 Rays games will air on Hearst-owned and operated stations serving Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando-Daytona, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers-Naples. The schedule begins with the team’s home opener in St. Petersburg on April 6.
In the Tampa market, games will air on WMOR-TV (Channel 32). Orlando-area viewers will be able to watch on WESH-TV (Channel 2, NBC), and WKCF-TV (Channel 18). In West Palm Beach, coverage will be carried on the MeTV multicast channel of WPBF-TV (Channel 25.2) and in Fort Myers, the games will air on WBBH (Channel 20, NBC) and WZVN (Channel 26, ABC) along with WBBH’s Heroes & Icons multicast network.
The agreement expands Hearst’s portfolio of local sports programming and reinforces its strategy of leveraging broadcast television to deliver live events to regional audiences. The company has increasingly leaned into sports as a key driver of viewership and advertising revenue, particularly as teams and leagues look for broader distribution beyond traditional pay TV models.
The Rays deal follows a similar arrangement involving the Orlando Magic, with select games from the NBA franchise airing on Hearst stations WESH, WKCF and WMOR during the 2025-26 regular season. That package is offered as a simulcast in partnership with FanDuel Sports Network Florida.
Shannon Coggins, the Vice President of Programming at Hearst Television, said the agreement highlights the continued relevance of local broadcast stations in sports distribution.
“This partnership combines the Rays’ outstanding popularity and brand with Hearst Television’s powerful array of stations throughout Central and South Florida, one of many strong regional concentrations across our national footprint of nearly three dozen stations,” Coggins said in a statement. “Local broadcast television remains the ideal platform for sports organizations to connect with fans at scale.”
The deal comes as Major League Baseball teams continue to explore expanded over-the-air distribution strategies to reach cord-cutting audiences and supplement regional sports network partnerships.