A saga that began with ESPN’s opt-out in February has ended with three new rights deals — and two new partners — for Major League Baseball.
Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that it has reached three-year media rights deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix that will in one form or another replace the expiring contract that ESPN opted out of in February. The details are in large measure what has been previously reported for months, with some new details sprinkled in. [Related: Who is the big winner of the MLB media rights saga?]
The “Sunday Night Baseball” package that had been a staple of ESPN programming for decades will move to NBCU starting next season, as will the Wild Card playoff round, new exclusive primetime windows on Opening Day and Labor Day, and other events — including the 2026 MLB Draft and Futures Game, and in the final two years of the deal, one special event game and one game on the final day of the regular season.
Peacock will also resume airing the Sunday morning package of games that it relinquished after the 2023 season, creating a full day of Sunday MLB that will include a new whiparound show between the morning and primetime windows. All Peacock exclusive games, which will include some in the postseason, will be available on the new NBCSN.
Netflix will acquire the Home Run Derby, a new standalone Opening Night game that will precede Opening Day each season, and one special event game in each year of the deal — including next season’s “Field of Dreams” game. MLB Network will produce all of the Netflix inventory, including the Derby.
ESPN has carved out an entirely new package that includes exclusive rights to the MLB.tv digital out-of-market package — which will include access to MLB Network within the ESPN app — plus in-market streaming rights to six clubs whose rights are currently managed by MLB (the Mariners, Twins, Guardians, Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies) and a package of exclusive weeknight games that includes Memorial Day and a standalone game on the first night after the All-Star break.
ESPN will also retain its radio rights — which had not been mentioned in any previous reporting — and continue to air the annual Little League Classic, which will continue to air on a Sunday.
Both MLB.tv and the local in-market productions will remain “available on MLB platforms” for this coming season. It would be fair to assume that starting with the 2027 season, those properties will become exclusive to the ESPN app, but that was not said in any of the announcements Wednesday.
Notably, ESPN said in its announcement that subscribers to ESPN Unlimited will have access to 150 games per season via a special “Game of the Day,” akin to that which used to be available on ESPN+. That would seem to imply that access to the full lineup of games on MLB.tv would require a separate subscription (and fee) on top of ESPN Unlimited.
Peacock will also have an out-of-market “Game of the Day” throughout the season. (It has long been standard for MLB.tv to make one or two games a day available for free via its main service or distributors like Amazon.) In addition, NBCU will exclusively carry all 15 games on July 5 of this coming season. The Sunday morning and Sunday night games will both air on NBC and Peacock, and all of the games in between will be exclusive to Peacock. (It is unclear how many of those Peacock exclusives could conceivably air on NBCSN and any of its overflow channels).
All NBCU-produced games will be televised in Spanish on Telemundo Deportes — not to be confused with Telemundo — and games on the NBC broadcast network will be simulcast on Universe.
Keep in mind that the entire MLB media rights saga this year concerned only one of the league’s three packages. Fox Sports and TNT Sports will continue to carry games as part of their ongoing seven-year deals.
