Major League Baseball on Wednesday announced a series of new broadcast deals with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix for 2026-28, essentially replacing the final three years of ESPN’s previous deal which the network
and MLB opted out of. Part of the restructuring is Sunday Night Baseball now exclusively on NBC and Peacock.
The first game of the new NBC contract with MLB is the Dodgers’ opening day contest on Thursday, March 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. Game times for 2026 haven’t yet been announced, but NBC touts that Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks will be the only primetime MLB game on opening day. Whether that means locally or nationally remains to be seen. Last year, for instance, the Dodgers’ home opener was exclusively on ESPN and started at 4 p.m. in Los Angeles, 7 p.m. on the east coast.
Part of Netflix’s contract with MLB includes an exclusive “opening night” the day before opening day, like how ESPN used to have a lone Sunday Night Baseball game when opening day was on Monday. Next season, the Netflix opening night game is the Giants and Yankees on Wednesday, March 25 in San Francisco.
NBC now has Sunday Night Baseball, a 25-game slate they say is “a mixture of games on NBC/Peacock (in all available Sunday night broadcast windows) and Peacock/NBCSN exclusives,” plus the entire wild card round. That was the bulk of ESPN’s previous commitment, with Netflix taking over broadcasts of the Home Run Derby.
ESPN’s old contract was set to pay $550 million per year to MLB through 2028. Andrew Marchand at The Athletic reported that ESPN will still pay that amount, with the NBC and Netflix deals bringing in nearly $250 million annually to MLB.
ESPN will continue to have exclusive weeknight games, now 30 per season with the new contract, plus The Little League Classic each year. In addition, ESPN is now the rights holder for MLBtv, which will still be available through MLB platforms in 2026.
Per ESPN:
New MLB.TV subscribers will be able to purchase and stream the service through the enhanced ESPN App and enjoy its suite of interactive features and functionalities – alongside more than 50,000 other sports events and content from ESPN’s family of networks. Both new and existing MLB.TV subscribers will have the ability to access the service on the ESPN App and through MLB platforms.
From Marchand at The Athletic:
ESPN has not decided how it will sell MLB.TV, but it is expected to be at the same $150 per year that subscribers paid when it was under the league’s control. For at least the first year, subscribers will still be able to continue on the MLB app. T-Mobile is expected to continue, allowing fans to receive the service for free.
