ESPN, NBCUniversal, and Netflix will pay around $800 million per year for MLB media rights|All-Pro Reels|CC BY-SA 2.0
Major League Baseball (MLB) has finalized three-year media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal, and Netflix, which will pay a total $800 million per year for the rights.
The goal of the new partnerships is to expand baseball’s reach across both cable and streaming platforms.
The league announced Wednesday that Disney’s ESPN will pay about $550 million a year. It will air 30 national games each season. It will also show Memorial Day games and the Little League Classic. ESPN now has the rights to sell and distribute MLB.TV and MLB Network.
NBCUniversal will pay about $200 million a year to air Sunday Night Baseball on NBC. It will also show all four Wild Card playoff series.
Some games will stream exclusively on Peacock and air on NBCSN.
Netflix will pay about $50 million annually for Opening Night, the Home Run Derby, and the annual “MLB at Field of Dreams” game.