Major League Baseball Seals 3-Year Rights Deals With ESPN, Netflix & NBCUniversal

Major League Baseball has joined the sports rights free-for-all, sealing 3-year deals with media partners NBCUniversal, ESPN and Netflix.

The league and its partners did not comment on the value of the deals, but the Wall Street Journal pegged it at $800 million a year.

Coming off a bravura finish to the 2025 season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers coming from behind to beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series as TV ratings surged, the league was in a solid negotiating position. It also had eager buyers. Netflix will stream games for the first time; NBCU will return them to its broadcast flagship for the first time in decades, positioning them alongside NBA and NFL telecasts; and longtime partner ESPN will rightsize its portfolio.

Before the 2025 season began, the Disney sports division let it be known that it planned to walk away from a decades-long partnership with baseball, before later warming up to the idea of continuing on a scaled-down basis.

The agreements are starting at an uneasy time for MLB in terms of its workforce. The league’s collective bargaining agreement with players expires after the 2026 season. The players’ union is expected to push back aggressively at efforts by owners to implement a salary cap. Without a cap in place, player salaries have mushroomed, 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 settled into the stance that the entire 2027 season could be at risk if owners lock out players and no new CBA is set.

The NBCU deal will kick off with the Dodgers playing the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 26 in prime time, with the game preceded by a ceremony marking their 2025 championship.

The agreement spans NBC, NBCSN and Peacock, including prime time’s Sunday Night Baseball, and the entire wild card round of the postseason.