Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani (17) throws a pitch during the MLB game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 16, 2025 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA.
Brian Rothmuller | Sports Icon | fake images
Major League Baseball officially announced a new three-year media rights deal with NBC, Netflix and ESPN on Wednesday, foreshadowing the league's biggest television deal coming in 2028.
The new deal stems from ESPN's decision to opt out of its “Sunday Night Baseball” package earlier this year. ESPN reached a new agreement with MLB, acquiring the rights to MLB.TV and a package of midweek games. NBC Sports will take over the Sunday night games and Netflix will be the new home for the next three Home Run Derbies. All agreements begin with the 2026 season.
CNBC previously reported most of the details of the deal in August.
“Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach to fans through three powerful destinations for live sports, entertainment and marquee events,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
The new deal foreshadows MLB's quest to increase television revenue at the end of the 2028 season, when it will regain these rights plus existing broadcast rights from Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.
While it's not an exact apples-to-apples comparison, MLB had to take a cut of about $300 million per year from what ESPN had been paying before opting out earlier this year. NBC is paying about $200 million a year for its new package, and Netflix is paying about $50 million a year for Derby, CNBC reported in August. The two packages together represent roughly what ESPN had been paying.
Still, MLB has the opportunity to expand its reach through new, exclusive broadcast partners.
The average ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game averaged 1.8 million viewers last season.
The loss of revenue from the Sunday Night package suggests MLB may have to get creative in how it distributes new game packages in 2028 to ensure it continues to grow media revenue. As a whole, the league is now earning more in overall media revenue, but it needed to sell ESPN rights and games it had not previously offered. ESPN is paying about $550 million for its new package, CNBC reported in August.
The NBA nearly tripled its national media revenue in its most recent rights deal, and the NFL is so confident it can deliver a big boost to the deal it signed in 2021 that it is open to accelerating talks with its current media partners starting next year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September.
Details of the new agreement
ESPN's new deal allows it to sell and distribute MLB.TV, the league's out-of-market streaming service, through the ESPN app. ESPN will also receive a new 30-game midweek package live on ESPN linear networks and the ESPN app.
ESPN will also sell and distribute MLB Network and in-market games for select MLB teams through the ESPN app. Those teams are the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, franchises whose games have been produced and distributed by MLB after the collapse of the regional sports networks that carried those teams.
NBC will now have MLB, NBA and NFL on Sunday for its broadcast network, its new cable sports channel and its Peacock streaming service. NBC will also broadcast the entire MLB Wild Card Round, which spans eight to 12 games each season.
In addition to three years of Home Run Derby, Netflix will own the rights to a single Opening Night game for the next three seasons. Netflix will also exclusively offer all 47 games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic to its audience in Japan.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
