2026 National TV Deals

I thought I’d take a look at the new national TV deals announced this past week for Major League Baseball.  First off, I want to stress this is NATIONAL coverage.  This doesn’t affect local coverage (which for the Rangers means Victory+ / RSN).  That’s something completely different.

Now, Victory+/RSN is sold as “all the local games” – which means if a game isn’t on one of the national carriers, it’ll be on Victory+/RSN/Ch 33 OTA as it was in 2025.  That’s not changing.  However, the national deals have moved around a bit for 2026, so I thought I’d break it down. 

It DOES mean that if you want to watch 100% of the games, you’ll need access to quite a few things.  The FULL broadcast list of games likely won’t come out until Spring Training starts.  As a reminder, the 2025 schedule was first announced in early Feb, then we got the national games later in Feb, and the “final” final TV schedule was published on March 3.  So we won’t have full one on what Rangers games will be on national carriers until Spring Training is well under way.  And then there’s the flex concept, as you know a few times in 2025, games were “selected” to be on national broadcasts during the season, so things can (and probably will) change – but the vast bulk of the games will be on Victory+/RSN for viewing as they were in 2025. 

One other fun thing is that all of these deals are for three years, and expire after the 2028 season. This counts both the new ones announced this week, and the existing ones we’ve had for awhile (like FOX).  2029 will likely look radically different, but that’s a few years down the line at this point.

Anyway, here’s a look at the National baseball TV deals for 2026:

NETFLIX

Netflix will be the smallest part of this pie, but they have a few select marquee things, which I believe was what Netflix wanted – “destination games”.  They will get one single game in the season, but it’s the first one.  For 2026, it will be the Yankees/Giants game on March 25th.

Netflix will also have the Home Run Derby, which will continue to be the night before the All Star Game.  This used to be on ESPN, which will no longer carry that.  ESPN also used to show the futures game and the celebrity softball game, both of which moved to MLB Network & MLB.com in 2025, so presumably they’ll be there again in 2026.

Netflix will also cover the World Baseball Classic in 2026 (link), but that’s not part of the regular season.  They also will have the Field of Dreams game on Aug 13 – but that’s the Phillies & Twins.

Rangers impact: Zero, as they have just one game, and we know what it is – although if you want to watch the HR Derby, WBC, or the Field of Dreams game, you’ll need Netflix to see it.

ESPN

This past year much was made about ESPN opting out of the rest of their coverage they’ve had since 1990.  Everyone assumed “ESPN was out”.  Well, they were out of the games they were doing before, but they ahve a VERY big new deal.

ESPN becomes the rights holder for MLB.TV, which will be available on the ESPN App.  It will continue to be available through the mlb site itself, so it won’t change in that regard.

ESPN also gets in market streaming rights for the six teams whose games were produced by MLB (Padres, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Twins, & Mariners).  I’m unclear if this means these teams will now have “ESPN produced” games, or they’ll continue on in the fashion they have been since MLB took over control of their games.

ESPN will also have 30 games during the season only on ESPN, mostly mid week.  I personally would take that to mean Wednesday, but I haven’t seen any language in anyone’s press relaases (MLB | ESPN) which specifically break it down to be Wednesday.

Rangers impact: This will only be a thing if the Rangers are selected for one of the 30 national mid week ESPN games. I have to assume that one or two of them will be there, but we won’t find out till March.

NBC / Peacock

NBC returns to Major League Baseball coverage, taking over the slots that two broadcasters had prior to this.

First NBC takes over the Sunday Night game that used to be on ESPN.  This game will be broadcast on either over the air antenna NBC, or it will be on Peacock (depending on any other rights deals NBC has in that slot).  Presumably they’l all be on Peacock no matter their status on OTA NBC.

Second, they’re now going to have the “Sunday Leadoff game” – that early one that for the last two season has been on Roku (who is now out completely).  The Sunday Leadoff game will air on their streaming service Peacock exclusively.  Peacock actually used to cover this game in 2022 & 2023 before moving to Roku – now back at Peacock.

Peacock will also have a an as of yet untitled show that will air in the late afternoon on Sundays before the Sunday night game on either NBC or Peacock.

Additionally, NBC will air the Wild Card Series and a couple spent games including a game on opening weekend and on Labor Day.  NBC’s first game will be an opening day matchup between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers.

Rangers impact: Similar to the mid week ESPN game, this would only be a thing for us if the Rangers are selected for the national game on this carrier.  Although if it’s on NBC, that’s a free over the air antenna thing, and there’s no cost to use an antenna.

Apple TV+

Now this one was a surprise.  I was under the impression that Apple TV+ was out after the 2025 season.  That is apparently wrong, as Apple TV+ will continue to have their Friday night exclusive game(s) through 2028 along with all the other carriers.  This one seems to generate the most pissing and moaning from people, but I don’t get that – it’s no different than any of the others (Netflix, Peacock, etc).

I enjoyed their coverage, and as someone who already pays for Apple TV+ (they have some killer shit there), the games are just available.  Still..  I get it – another sub to see games.

Rangers impact: As with the others, we won’t know the impact until March when we get a full schedule.  However, in 2025, we had I think three or four games there through the season, so it’s probably not unrealistic to expect that again.

TBS

TBS is mostly known for doing playoff baseball. In the playoffs, TBS airs games in the Division & Championship series, but just one league at a a time (FOX does the other in alternating years).

They do have some games during the season, all on Tuesday nights under something called “MLB Tuesday”.

TBS games also appear on HBO Max and the free streaming site truTV.

Rangers impact: During the season, the impact is non existent, I don’t think we were on TBS during the season at all in 2025.  Probably be the same way in 2026.

FOX

There’s also good ol Fox.  Fox has a Saturday national exclusive game every week of the year, and have for a very long time.  That will continue through 2028.  Their games are usually on FOX4 on free over the air antenna, but sometimes are on the channel FS1.

Fox will continue to air the All Star Game and the World Series as they have for awhile now.

Rangers impact: We usually have a handful of games on Fox national during the season, and I expect that to continue this year as well.  Likely means more swearing at John Smoltz.

So that’s it.  If you want to see all 162 Rangers games, you’ll need someone who carries Rangers Sports Network – the official list of those carriers is on the Rangers site on their page for all this at https://www.rangers.com/tunein and you’ll need some combination of the other carriers listed above.

As I’ve said a few times, we won’t know the full breakdown until early March as to what games will go where, but if you go off of last season’s schedule, this was the breakdown.  AGAIN THIS WAS 2025 – NEW SEASON INFO WON”T BE AVAILABLE FOR A FEW MONTHS.

• RSN / CH33 / Victory+: 151 games
• Fox: 5
• AppleTV+: 3
• Roku: 2
• ESPN: 1

Now that’s the original schedule – I recall a couple times we got flexed into national games, but I can’t recall exactly how many – I think it was three (which I’d have to read the entire season’s game recaps to find out where they aired – too much work).  Anyway, that would make a total of 14 games out of 162 on national carriers, leaving 148 of them on RSN/Victory+/Ch33.   That’s a very healthy percentage.

Sure if you want to see ALL of them it can be a bit fiddly. But the reality is not as bad as the whiners scream about on social media – it really isn’t.  Besides, you can always put Eric Nadel on the freely available radio, too.  He’s a bloody hall of fame, and calls an excellent game. Won’t hurt to do that, to be honest.

Also, no word yet on when you’ll be able to renew Victory+ for 2026, but that should be coming soon.  Will update with that when I can.

You can also watch this breakdown of the new TV deals from a national perspective by Brody Brazil a sports caster I watch a lot on Youtube.