The league announced Wednesday afternoon that it had reached a three-year media rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Netflix that will run through the 2028 campaign. NBC and Peacock will officially become the home of Sunday Night Baseball and the wild card round of the playoffs for the next three seasons. Netflix is ​​getting Home Run Derby, the Field of Dreams game next season and a standalone Opening Day primetime game.
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ESPN will get MLB.tv as part of the deal, giving it the rights to all out-of-market games for teams and six in-market clubs. It’s unclear how ESPN will sell MLB.tv next season, but it’s expected to be priced at $150 a year, which is the same amount subscribers paid when the service was under league control, according to . ESPN will also receive 30 midweek games during the season.
The new agreement is a direct result of ESPN’s decision to cancel the final three seasons of its agreement with MLB earlier this season. ESPN was due to pay about $1.65 billion before the deal was restructured. They will continue to pay that amount for the next three seasons.
According to The Athletic, NBC is expected to pay MLB nearly $200 million a year. Netflix will pay $50 million per season. Netflix’s Opening Day game will feature the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants. The Field of Dreams game in Iowa will feature the Philadelphia Phillies and the Minnesota Twins. NBC’s first independent game will be the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks.
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ESPN, according to The Athletic, will have the ability to add more in-market rights to clubs if they become available over the next three seasons. They currently have rights on the market for the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Seattle Mariners, Twins and Diamondbacks.
“Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach to fans across three powerful destinations for live sports, entertainment and marquee events,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
“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 of excellence, new rules that have improved the game on the field, and increases in important fan engagement metrics such as viewership, attendance, engagement and social media consumption.
“We look forward to leveraging the unique areas of expertise that ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix bring to the sport for the benefit of our fans.”
Fox will continue to broadcast regular season games, the All-Star Game and several playoff games, including the World Series. AppleTV+ will also have two games on Friday nights during the regular season.