The national and streaming television landscape for Major League Baseball will be changing for 2026 as the league prepares to overhaul its approach starting in 2029. This past February, ESPN opted out of the final three years of its deal with the league that would have paid MLB $550 million per year. Those rights will be split up three ways for the next three seasons, with chunks going to ESPN, Netflix, and NBC/Peacock. Between the three, MLB is expected to get $750 million per year in total over the next three seasons.
ESPN will receive a national 30-game package throughout the season available exclusively on ESPN’s television networks and streaming app. They will also continue to carry the Little League Classic and will stream over 150 out-of-market games, one per day, via the ESPN app. In addition, they will take over control of the out-of-market streaming capabilities available today through MLB.tv. Details on how that will work were not made available at this time.
Netflix will get exclusive rights to the standalone Opening Day game in prime time, the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game. No word yet on if they will produce these events in house and, if so, who the broadcasters may be.
NBC and its streaming app Peacock will become the new home of Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card round of the postseason. The network will also take over the Sunday Leadoff game, a package that premiered on Peacock but has aired on Roku for the past two seasons.
The rest of the national agreements, with FOX, TBS, and Apple TV, will continue as is through 2028. At that point, all of MLB’s television rights will be coming up together at the same time. Commissioner Rob Manfred would like the league to control the local rights for all teams by that point, hoping a singular package will generate the most revenue. Teams that have ownership stakes in their own local RSNs, like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, and Cubs, may not be aligned with this approach.
