Why Netflix is turning MLB’s opening night into a big event

For many fans, Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is something of an unofficial holiday. Although this year offers a different visual experience.

Instead of turning on ESPN or a regional sports channel to watch their favorite team, there will only be one game that kicks off the season, and it will stream exclusively on Netflix.

On Wednesday, the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants will face off at Oracle Park. Retired baseball stars Barry Bonds, Anthony Rizzo and Albert Pujols, led by former ESPN anchor Elle Duncan, will be in the broadcast booth.

And for one of Netflix’s many touches – “Thing,” the adorable detached hand from the streamer’s Addams Family spinoff “Wednesday,” will throw out the first pitch.

This is the latest example of a streaming platform moving into live sports programming. All major services, including Amazon Prime, Max, Peacock, Paramount+ and others, offer a mix of professional sports packages to their subscribers.

For Netflix, this is the first time an MLB Opening Game will be broadcast globally, as Netflix reaches nearly a billion viewers in more than 190 countries and 50 languages.

Due to existing local media rights, the game will not be available in some markets.

For Gabe Spitzer, Netflix’s vice president of sports, it’s a chance for the streamer to “work with a league to expand that audience” beyond just die-hard sports fans. “Maybe casual fans are tuning in, or someone who watched a baseball documentary on Netflix is ​​thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll watch the Yankees Giants game because it’s live.’ That’s our ultimate goal,” he said.

A little over two years ago, Netflix first ventured into streaming live sporting events, with the Netflix Cup, a golf tournament between PGA Tour golfers and Formula 1 drivers. It garnered a modest audience of around 700,000 views in the second half of 2023.

Spitzer said the big turning point for Netflix in this area was the November 2024 fight between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and YouTube influencer Jake Paul. The event attracted 60 million households worldwide and became the most broadcast sporting event in history, according to Netflix. The massive viewership tested the streaming platform’s technical capability, as many fans complained about buffering or the video stream being lost completely.

Netflix also made Christmas Day an event in 2024, paying $150 million a year for the rights to broadcast two NFL games on the holiday. The 2025 late afternoon game between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions was the most broadcast NFL game in history with 27.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The opener is part of a larger three-year deal the league struck with Netflix, which pays $60 million a year for a package that also includes the Home Run Derby and the annual Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa. The games became available when ESPN decided to pull out of its deal (the Walt Disney Co. unit negotiated a new package that gives the network 30 games and expanded streaming rights).

The MLB events will help Netflix determine whether to pursue a larger package when the league’s larger media rights deal, which includes the World Series on Fox, comes up for renewal after the 2028 season.

The streamer is also expected to enter into negotiations for a larger engagement with the NFL when the league exercises its option to reopen its media rights contract after the 2029-30 season.

But for now, Netflix’s sports strategy is to create large-scale live events, which Spitzer calls “meaningful and refreshing conversation” for global audiences.

The streamer and the league worked together to move the Yankees-Giants game a day early and present it in prime time on Wednesday night. Since it was the only game played that day, Spitzer said it was “really the season opener.”

“As we continue to grow baseball around the world and reach younger fans, Netflix is ​​an ideal partner to help us further expand the sport’s fan base through its ubiquitous streaming service,” Kenny Gersh, MLB executive vice president of media and business, said in a statement. “They are approaching their first-ever MLB game with lots of energy and creative marketing. We are excited to work with them to join MLB’s collection of elite media partners.”

Sports media consultant Lee Berke sees Netflix’s venture into live sports as a way to “raise the profile of a particular game and give it a Netflix twist, making it something you’ll only see on Netflix.”

“Every sport is now looking for events that can be interesting to increase fan awareness, sponsor and distributor interest over the course of a season,” Berke said, pointing to the NBA Emirates Cup – an in-season tournament sponsored by the Dubai-owned airline – and the NHL’s Four Nations Cup. “Everyone tries to offer a variety of events, because they generate interest, they drive business and revenue. It kind of feeds on itself.”

As the sports industry continues to open up to these spectacle-driven games, it provides additional television opportunities for media giants such as Netflix, Berke said. Ultimately, Berke said, these games are beneficial to the industry overall.

For Berke, the only lingering fear is that sporting events could further fragment audiences as different sports now span multiple platforms and streaming networks. The upside is that they have the potential to help sports leagues capture public attention, maximize revenue, and offset increased expenses.

“Let’s be honest, if you’re Netflix, you’re looking to attract and retain subscribers. … This is another tool in the toolbox to help build growth and maintain subscribers,” Berke said. “The most consistent intellectual property that attracts audiences year after year is sports, and if you find the right combination of them, it can help you grow your business. »

To support this live sports campaign, Netflix recently hired Duncan, the former ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor, to lead Netflix’s sports coverage. At ESPN, she said, it was “a very well-oiled machine that was very successful” for decades with “a proven way” of doing things.

But as it moves from a traditional television network to a streaming service, Duncan’s responsibility is different. It’s no longer about serving a national audience of baseball superfans; it must keep in mind a global sports-curious audience.

“If you watch ESPN, chances are you’re a die-hard sports fan, but Netflix is ​​for everyone,” Duncan said. “How do we incorporate people who are more interested in watching ‘Love is Blind’ into a sports show?”

The baseball game will air Wednesday at 5 p.m. PT.

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.