The big news around baseball yesterday was that Major League Baseball announced its new media rights deals with multiple networks and streaming services that cover the next three seasons. Here’s a breakdown
from yesterday, but we’ll give you the shorthanded version in list form here.
NBCUniversal/Peacock receives:
- Sunday Night Baseball
- Wild Card series
- Special Event games including Opening Day and Labor Day
- MLB draft
- Futures Game
- Sunday Leadoff Game
- A “game of the day” on Peacock that will be available to out of market fans
ESPN receives:
- MLB.TV
- A package of exclusive national midweek games
Netflix receives:
- Opening Night game
- Home Run Derby
- An additional special event game, starting with the 2026 Field of Dreams game featuring the Phillies and Twins
Get all of that?
It’s an interesting path forward for commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB after ESPN opted out of the remaining three years and $1.65 billion remaining on their agreement in February. The Athletic is reporting that the new deals will pay MLB a total of around $750M per year over the next three years.
For fans, you will now be required to pay for at least two streaming services (Netflix, Peacock) in addition to whatever method you use to normally watch your team, be it cable or MLB.TV. You will be required to navigate a tangled web of who owns what if you want to maximize your baseball watching over the next few years.
So, what do you think of MLB’s new media rights deals? How will they affect your ability to watch the Phillies? Are you going to be able to watch more or less games now?
