ESPN, Netflix and NBC sign new media deal with Major League Baseball

After opting out of its television rights deal with Major League Baseball earlier this year, ESPN is offering a new package that will provide additional games to its streaming customers.

The deal announced by the league Wednesday will also return baseball to NBC and bring three MLB events — a home opener, the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game — to Netflix for the first time.

As part of the deal, ESPN will integrate the league’s streaming platform, MLB.TV, into its recently launched direct-to-consumer service, which delivers sports channels to consumers with or without a cable subscription.

MLB.TV provides consumers with local broadcasts of out-of-market games. During the 2026 season, new customers will now be able to purchase the service as part of an ESPN subscription. Pricing has not yet been set for the combined services.

ESPN Unlimited subscribers will enjoy 150 additional out-of-market games throughout the season at no additional cost. ESPN will carry local games in the six MLB markets that no longer have regional sports networks: San Diego, Cleveland, Seattle, Minnesota, Arizona and Colorado. The games, produced by MLB, will be available for purchase via streaming in these markets via ESPN.

ESPN will no longer air “Sunday Night Baseball,” a network staple for decades, but will offer a 30-game weekday package. It will also retain its coverage of the MLB Little League Classic and broadcast a game on Memorial Day.

ESPN will pay $550 million for the new deal over three years, the same amount as the last contract, according to sources familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly.

While ESPN and MLB exchanged harsh words when their long-standing deal was broken earlier this year, both sides praised the end result, which places more emphasis on streaming.

“Bringing MLB.TV to the new ESPN app while maintaining a presence on linear television reflects a balanced approach to the changes taking place in the way fans watch baseball and gives MLB a meaningful presence in an important destination for fans of all sports,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro called the deal a “fan-friendly deal” that prioritizes the Walt Disney Co unit’s “future of streaming.”

“Sunday Night Baseball” will air on NBC, with 25 prime-time games on the broadcast network or on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform. Already the home of “Sunday Night Football” and “Sunday Night Basketball,” the addition of MLB — at $200 million per season — means NBC will offer live prime-time sports every Sunday of the year.

The network also picks up the wild card round of the MLB playoffs that had been broadcast on ESPN.

In 2027 and 2028, NBC will broadcast the most important game played on the last Sunday of the season.

NBC Sports also gets the rights to the late Sunday morning game, which will be broadcast on Peacock and followed by a “whipped” show featuring the action from the league contests that day. Peacock won the morning game in 2023 and 2024 before going to Roku last season.

Peacock-exclusive MLB games will also be broadcast on the new NBC Sports Network, offered to cable and satellite TV providers.

Netflix is ​​paying about $50 million a year to stream the 2026 home opener between the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees on March 25. The annual Home Run Derby, previously on ESPN, is also moving to the streamer, as is the Field of Dreams game, which will be played in Dyersville, Iowa, where the setting for “Field of Dreams” is located.

The deal continues Netflix’s approach of offering appointment-based sporting events to its subscribers rather than investing in a full season package.

New MLB deals only last three years. The league wants them to align with its main TV rights package that includes the playoffs, World Series and All-Star Game. Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS is offering these packages until 2028.