Big Changes are Coming to MLB Broadcasts Next Year
While baseball teams work on assembling rosters for next year, Major League Baseball itself made some hot stove news Wednesday.
The league announced new television and streaming deals with three major players that will reshape how fans watch games in 2026 and beyond.
Read on to find out what will change and what will be the same next season as the Los Angeles Dodgers try to defend their World Series title again.
Sunday Night Baseball will have a new home
From a national perspective, the biggest news is NBC getting back into baseball in a big way.
The network will be the new home of Sunday Night Baseball and the Sunday morning game during the regular season then have all four of the Wild Card Series when postseason play begins.
Not every game will be on broadcast, though, as some games will find their way to Peacock (streaming) or the newly revived NBC Sports Network.
Peacock will also be the home of the Sunday Leadoff game that was originally on the service in 2022-2023 before going to ROKU the last two years.
NBC and Peacock will also air the first hour of the MLB Draft, which is moving to the Saturday of the All-Star Week, and the Futures Game, which will be that Sunday.
While FOX has been the primarily national home of MLB for the last 25 years, it was most often seen on NBC from 1947-1989 and ’94-2000.
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What about ESPN?
An acrimonious split between ESPN and MLB seemed to be in the offing earlier this year, but the league and the sports giant will stay together with a new relationship starting next year.
ESPN won’t have Sunday Night Baseball anymore, but it is getting control of MLB.tv. That means it will be able to sell out-of-market games to fans across the country.
“This fan-friendly agreement allows us to showcase the great sport of baseball on both a local and national level, while prioritizing our streaming future,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a news release. “MLB.TV is a coveted, must-have companion for passionate MLB fans all over the country, and it will be strongly complemented by our national game package and in-market team rights.”
ESPN will also receive a national 30-game package throughout the season available exclusively on its TV channels and streaming app plus have have rights to Memorial Day game coverage and televise the second half opener coming out of the All-Star break.
The Little League World Series will also remain on ESPN.
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Here comes Netflix
Netflix will continue its spread into sports with several big baseball events starting next spring.
Those will include the World Baseball Classic, the stand-alone Opening Night game that precedes the traditional opening day slate, and the Home Run Derby.
Netflix will also be the new home of the Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa, in August.
FOX, TBS and Apple not going anywhere
The World Series has been on FOX since the turn of the century, and that will continue.
FOX will also continue airing the All-Star Game and select regular season games, mostly on Saturdays.
Regular season games will also continue to air on TBS on Tuesday nights, and TBS will remain the home of League Championship Series and Division Series.
The Apple TV “Friday Night Baseball” series will also continue while MLB Network programming does not figure to change, either.
All this come as MLB seems to be ascending again in terms of popularity.
The 2025 World Series drew more than 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada and Japan, and MLB says the Dodgers’ dramatic win over the Blue Jays was the most-viewed in 33 years.
An average of 6.33 million Americans watched the postseason games, making it the most-watched in eight years, and MLB says viewership increased across all of its national television partners, locally on regional sports networks and streaming on MLB.TV.
“Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a great 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 news release. “Following our last World Series game that averaged more than 51 million viewers globally, these partnerships build on MLB’s growing momentum that includes generational stars setting new standards for excellence, new rules which have improved the game on the field, and increases in important fan engagement metrics like viewership, attendance, participation and social media consumption. We’re looking forward to tapping into the unique areas of expertise that ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix each bring to the sport for the benefit of our fans.”