MLB’s new broadcast deals prove they hate baseball fans and want you to suffer

Major League Baseball just announced its big three year media rights victory lap with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix.

Rob Manfred is probably popping champagne somewhere, bragging about viewership spikes, record postseason numbers, and the most watched World Series game since half the league was still using fax machines.

It is an amazing moment for MLB executives. It is absolute hell for anyone who actually wants to watch baseball.

Let’s start with ESPN, because this part almost broke my brain.

They get a 30 game package each season on ESPN platforms. Fine. Whatever.

Now fans will be able to purchase MLB.TV through the ESPN app so they can watch their favorite teams outside of their home territory because blackouts still exist in the year 2025. The league just embraced the most hated rule in sports and baked it directly into a new streaming bundle.

And here is the kicker.

ESPN is now the exclusive broadcast home for the second half opener and the Little League Classic. The second half opener. That is not a national event.

That is not a moment. It is a random game after the All Star break that ESPN is now turning into a holiday. I truly hate these people. Nobody asked for this.

NBC and Peacock because is where things get even more painful

NBC is taking over Sunday Night Baseball. Fine. But somehow Peacock still gets Sunday Leadoff which has quietly been one of the worst sports broadcasts in modern American history.

I want someone to explain to me how MLB allows a national Sunday game to look like it was filmed on a Motorola Razr. The picture quality feels like a VHS tape from your grandfather’s basement. The broadcast team usually sounds like they huffed chalk line paint before going on air. Somehow, the league keeps giving it oxygen.

Then we arrive at Netflix.

The big streaming titan. The future of entertainment. What does MLB give them. The most under marketed special event game they could find. The Phillies versus the Twins in the Field of Dreams Game.

Nothing says American nostalgia like sending Minnesota to Iowa so Philly fans can pretend that cornfields matter to them for two hours.

Sure, Netflix also gets the Home Run Derby and Opening Night, but the Field of Dreams matchup feels like a punishment disguised as content.

Here is the simple version they want you to believe.

• Netflix gets Opening Night, Field of Dreams, and the Home Run Derby.
• NBC gets Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card Series.
• ESPN gets midweek games and becomes the middleman selling MLB.TV.
• Fox and TBS keep everything they already had.
• Apple keeps Friday Night Baseball.

MLB has formed new three-year media rights agreements with Netflix, NBCUniversal, and ESPN.

The agreements, which cover rights for the 2026-2028 MLB seasons, mark the return of NBC to regularly airing MLB games on its broadcast network for the first time in 26 years, will expand… pic.twitter.com/uqMXYpbQFP

— MLB (@MLB) November 19, 2025

Congratulations to everyone involved.

The real version outlines the dark truth that if you want to watch Major League Baseball in its entirety, you need to assemble the Infinity Stones of American broadcasting.

Might want to bookmark this one…lol

It will ultimately look something like this:

• Local cable to get your RSN
• ESPN
• FOX
• TBS or TNT
• NBC and NBCSN
• Apple TV
• Netflix
• MLB.TV
• MLB.TV again but through ESPN for some reason
• Peacock because NBC insists you subscribe to four things to watch one game

Do you understand how insane this is…?

This is the exact opposite of what fans wanted. Baseball finally gets younger viewers back after years of being treated like an antique and what does MLB decide to do… they build a streaming labyrinth so complicated that even Elon Musk would throw up his hands and say forget it.

And yes, before anyone jumps in, technically if you already pay for cable you have ESPN, FOX, TBS, and NBC. Congratulations. You still need Apple TV for Friday games, Netflix for the Derby and special events, MLB.TV for everything out of market, and Peacock for Sunday mornings.

So in summary, all you need to get is Apple TV, Netflix, and MLB.TV.

Totally normal. Totally consumer friendly.

This is not growing the game. This is squeezing every last penny out of a fanbase that already pays for parking, tickets, concessions, merch, and whatever new garbage Nike puts out every year.

MLB looked at the streaming wars, saw the wreckage, and said yes let us jump right into that wood chipper.

We did this to ourselves. We wanted cord cutting. We wanted options.

Now we are paying more than ever and half the time we need to keep a spreadsheet just to figure out how to watch our own teams.

So congrats to ESPN, NBC, and Netflix because they just won the next three years of baseball. For the rest of us. MLB is basically saying good luck.

Bring your credit card and do not ask questions.

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