MLB and ESPN Sign New Deal to Bring More Games to Streaming Customers
Major League Baseball (MLB) and ESPN have announced a new deal that will provide additional games for ESPN’s streaming customers. The deal, which was announced on Wednesday, will also return baseball to NBC and bring three MLB events to Netflix for the first time. This move is a significant shift in the way MLB games are consumed, with a greater emphasis on streaming.
As part of the deal, ESPN will integrate MLB’s streaming platform, MLB.TV, into its direct-to-consumer service. This will allow new customers to purchase the service as part of an ESPN subscription, providing local telecasts of out-of-market games to consumers. The pricing for the combined services has not yet been set. ESPN Unlimited subscribers will get an additional 150 out-of-market games over the course of the season at no additional cost.
ESPN’s New Package and NBC’s Acquisition of Sunday Night Baseball
ESPN will no longer carry “Sunday Night Baseball,” a staple of the network for decades, but will have a package of 30 weeknight games. It will also retain its coverage of the MLB Little League Classic and carry a game on Memorial Day. NBC, on the other hand, has acquired the rights to “Sunday Night Baseball” and will air 25 prime-time games on the broadcast network or NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock.
NBC is also picking up the wild card round of the MLB postseason that had been carried on ESPN. In 2027 and 2028, NBC will carry the most consequential game played on the final Sunday of the season. The network is also gaining the rights to the late Sunday morning game, which will be carried on Peacock and followed by a “whip-around” show presenting action from contests around the league that day.
Netflix’s Entry into MLB Streaming
Netflix is paying around $50 million per year to carry the 2026 opening night game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees on March 25. The annual Home Run Derby, previously on ESPN, also moves to the streamer, as does the Field of Dreams game, which will be played in Dyersville, Iowa, where the set for “Field of Dreams” is located. This deal continues Netflix’s approach of offering appointment sporting events to its subscribers rather than investing in a full season package.
The new MLB deals only run for three years, aligning with the league’s major TV rights package that includes the playoffs, the World Series, and the All-Star Game. Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS carry those packages until 2028. The deal is a significant development in the world of sports streaming, with both ESPN and Netflix expanding their offerings to meet the changing viewing habits of consumers.
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