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MLB Announces New TV Deals

T

TheBigA

Major League Baseball has announced new TV deals with ESPN, NBC Sports, and Netflix.

www.mlb.com

MLB announces new 3-year rights deals with ESPN, NBC, Netflix

On the heels of a 2025 season that saw large viewership increases -- including the most watched postseason in eight years and a World Series Game 7 that was the most watched Major League Baseball game in 34 years \-\- MLB announced Wednesday that it has formed new three-year media
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com

barrettmedia.com

MLB Reportedly Set To Announce Media Rights Deals With NBC, ESPN, Netflix

"Under the new deal, ESPN is expected to retain approximately 30 national games through the 2028 season"
barrettmedia.com barrettmedia.com

ESPN Radio will continue to do Sunday Night Baseball, All Star events, and post season games.
 
As a YouTube TV subscriber who limits his streaming subscriptions to Peacock and MLB.TV -- no Netflix, no Paramount+, no Amazon Prime, no Apple+ -- this deal is fine for me. I won't miss the Home Run Derby or the few exclusive games that Netflix will be getting, and will continue to find other games of interest to watch on Fridays rather than pay for Apple+, which is primarily an entertainment streamer. Losing the official season opener is annoying, but it's only 1 of 2,430 games; I'll survive.

As for ESPN Radio, how many stations actually carry the Sunday night games, or the postseason games, for that matter? ESPN can't force its radio affiliates to carry everything the Worldwide Leader sends down the pipe, right?
 
CTListener said:
As for ESPN Radio, how many stations actually carry the Sunday night games, or the postseason games, for that matter? ESPN can't force its radio affiliates to carry everything the Worldwide Leader sends down the pipe, right?
Click to expand...

I saw a lot of comments from people in major markets such as NY and Boston who were unable to hear the playoffs or world series on their local ESPN radio affiliates, so I guess the answer to your question is no.
 
TheBigA said:
I saw a lot of comments from people in major markets such as NY and Boston who were unable to hear the playoffs or world series on their local ESPN radio affiliates, so I guess the answer to your question is no.
Click to expand...
Doesn’t ESPN Radio provide an alternate feed for those affiliates that don’t want to carry the games?
 
TheBigA said:
I saw a lot of comments from people in major markets such as NY and Boston who were unable to hear the playoffs or world series on their local ESPN radio affiliates, so I guess the answer to your question is no.
Click to expand...
I'd imagine the postseason is problematic in most cities with professional sports teams, seeing as how late October is full of NBA and NHL regular season games. Come to think of it, stations that carry ESPN programming in strong college football markets would be unlikely to pre-empt Big State U.'s big Saturday night game for the Division or World Series, especially if the participating teams were out of market.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Doesn’t ESPN Radio provide an alternate feed for those affiliates that don’t want to carry the games?
Click to expand...

Sure! KTAR in Phoenix (my home turf) used it a lot, especially when ESPN-carried games were on at the same time as local games of the Arizona Diamondbacks which it or its FM sister, KMVP, was airing.
 
CTListener said:
I'd imagine the postseason is problematic in most cities with professional sports teams, seeing as how late October is full of NBA and NHL regular season games. Come to think of it, stations that carry ESPN programming in strong college football markets would be unlikely to pre-empt Big State U.'s big Saturday night game for the Division or World Series, especially if the participating teams were out of market.
Click to expand...
No radio station in Dallas/Ft. Worth carried the World Series on radio this year.
 
salemjedi54 said:
No radio station in Dallas/Ft. Worth carried the World Series on radio this year.
Click to expand...
yeah, but DFW had a choice, Sirius XM, live stream of the Dodgers radio coverage, live stream of the Blue Jays radio coverage or live stream of ESPN Radio. at this rate, it's a moot point unless the Rangers made the World Series, DFW don't really care about baseball outside of the Rangers anyway.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Doesn’t ESPN Radio provide an alternate feed for those affiliates that don’t want to carry the games?
Click to expand...
They do, although it is usually pre-recorded or a simulcast of one of the ESPN TV networks.

The main reason DFW didn't get the World Series is because no one is affiliated with ESPN Radio in that market, since Disney sold their O&O a few years back.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
yeah, but DFW had a choice, Sirius XM, live stream of the Dodgers radio coverage, live stream of the Blue Jays radio coverage or live stream of ESPN Radio. at this rate, it's a moot point unless the Rangers made the World Series, DFW don't really care about baseball outside of the Rangers anyway.
Click to expand...
When I worked at KLIF in the 90's we carried the NBA Finals, even before we got the rights to the Dallas Mavericks. Not everyone has access to SiriusXM or ESPN app. Not everyone wants to stream their sports.
 
The NBC Sports one is one I am familiar with its a case of them transferring from regional rights to national TV rights to the MLB. NBC had rights to the MLB on a local basis like airing San Francisco Giants on NBC Sports net.
 
Loverofradio said:
I think a lot more this time. NBC needs eyeballs for the money they forked over for this, which doesn’t even include the World Series. Best of luck to them. I think they can make the Sunday Night Baseball a thing by having it on OTA
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True and the current situation with NBC renewing their sports contracts for the NBA and MLB is a transfer from local broadcast rights to national TV rights so they can make sports as part of the reason why Peacock TV app is the destination at Comcast/NBC Universal.
 
Loverofradio said:
Where did you see that? I hadn’t heard that
Click to expand...
I remember prior to this announcement where NBC Sports got national rights to the MLB, One of the teams had an uncertain future on the local level the former Oakland A's/ Soon to be Las Vegas A's had their games aired on NBC Sports California and their future was uncertain on who would air the Las Vegas A's once they play at the site of the former Tropicana Hotel. It was uncertain on who gets local TV rights for that one. Which RSN's/Local TV stations get the rights to those games. Now we see some of that with NBC airing MLB on the national level for both NBC affiliates and Peacock.
 
TheBigA said:
Netflix will utilize Nielsen ratings for MLB games:

barrettmedia.com

Netflix Reportedly To Utilize Nielsen Ratings System for MLB Viewership Data

"The streaming giant begins a three-year agreement with Major League Baseball this season."
barrettmedia.com barrettmedia.com

They may be the first of the streamers to do this, most likely at the request of MLB. We may see more of this as sports expands its streaming.
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As the story notes, Netflix will only be streaming a handful of baseball events this season. The ratings for the season opener (Giants-Yankees) and the Home Run Derby will certainly be down from previous years. How big a drop may influence MLB's thinking in going forward with sending its product to streaming entities whose primary product isn't sports.
 


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