Major League Baseball games will be airing on three broadcast networks this coming season, with ABC set to carry a trio of games.
ESPN announced Wednesday that ABC will air three MLB games this coming season, Cubs-Giants on Sunday, June 14, Yankees-Red Sox on Saturday, June 27, and Cardinals-Cubs on Sunday, August 16. The games are part of ESPN’s new 30-game MLB regular season package that begins this season, which like its previous deal grants it the ability to put a few games on the broadcast network.
ABC, which once aired a weekly “Monday Night Baseball” package and the World Series, went a quarter-century between MLB telecasts from the end of “The Baseball Network” in 1995 to the 2020 postseason. The network carried a handful of matinee games in the expanded 2020 Wild Card Series and did so again each year after the round officially expanded to a best-of-three format in 2022.
But while ESPN had the option to put games on ABC in its prior deal, the network has aired only one regular season contest since 1995, White Sox-Cubs on “Sunday Night Baseball” opposite the Olympic Games in August 2021. One of the three ABC games this season will air opposite another international competition, the FIFA World Cup — with the June 14 game airing opposite Netherlands-Japan. (A previous version of this post mistakenly said the June 27 game would also face World Cup matches.)
With the addition of the ABC windows, Major League Baseball games will air on three of the four major broadcast networks this season. (While that appears to be a first in the regular season, ABC and NBC both joined FOX in airing games during the 2022 and 2023 seasons — ABC in the Wild Card round and NBC as part of Peacock’s “MLB Sunday Leadoff” package.)
NBCUniversal acquired most of the rights ESPN gave up when it opted out of its previous MLB deal last February, striking a deal that includes “Sunday Night Baseball” and the Wild Card playoffs. Despite all the movement on MLB rights in the past year, FOX remains the league’s “A” partner — and continues to pay the highest rights fee.
Assuming FOX continues to air its contractually-mandated schedule of 26 game windows, nearly 50 Major League Baseball telecasts are scheduled for broadcast TV this season across FOX, NBC (20) and ABC (3). That compares to 63 for the NBA across NBC (40) and ABC (23) and 16 for the NHL (ABC). In total, the three leagues are set for 128 contests on broadcast television in their current or upcoming regular seasons, more than double four years ago (55 total: 26 MLB, 19 NBA and 10 NHL).
