Major League Baseball enters into 3-year rights deals with ESPN, Netflix and NBCUniversal
Major League Baseball has joined free-to-air sports rights, reaching 3-year deals with media partners NBCUniversal, ESPN and Netflix.
The league and its partners have not commented on the value of the deals, but the Wall Street Journal puts it at $800 million per year.
After finishing the 2025 season on a strong note, with the Los Angeles Dodgers coming from behind to beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series as television ratings surged, the league was in a strong negotiating position. There were also enthusiastic buyers. Netflix will stream games for the first time; NBCU will bring them back to its flagship broadcast schedule for the first time in decades, placing them alongside NBA and NFL telecasts; and its longtime partner, ESPN, will right-size its portfolio.
Before the start of the 2025 season, Disney’s sports division made it known that it planned to end a decades-long partnership with baseball, before later warming to the idea of continuing on a reduced basis.
The deals begin at a difficult time for MLB in terms of roster numbers. The league’s collective bargaining agreement with players expires after the 2026 season. The players’ union is expected to aggressively oppose owners’ efforts to implement a salary cap. Without a cap, player salaries have exploded, with recent deals for New York Mets slugger Juan Soto and Dodgers dual threat Shohei Ohtani topping $700 million. Baseball observers and media members have taken the position that the entire 2027 season could be in jeopardy if owners cut players and no new collective bargaining agreement is established.
The NBCU deal will kick off with the Dodgers taking on the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 26 in prime time, with the game preceded by a ceremony marking their 2025 championship.
The deal covers NBC, NBCSN and Peacock, including primetime broadcasts. Sunday Night Baseballand the entire wild card round of the playoffs.
