After a roaring success during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Fox has re-upped for another go around with the international baseball competition.
The network announced on Tuesday that it will exclusively televise 47 games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic across Fox, FS1, FS2, and its digital properties, Fox One and Tubi. The Fox broadcast network will air seven games, including three Pool B games featuring the United States, two quarterfinal games, and the World Baseball Classic Championship Game. Remaining games will air across FS1, FS2, and the aforementioned streaming services.
Fox Deportes will also air Spanish-language broadcasts for 28 games throughout the event, including all games from the quarterfinal through the championship.
Recently, Netflix secured broadcast rights for the event in Japan.
Fox saw great returns for the 2023 championship, which featured a memorable at-bat between then-teammates Los Angeles Angels teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout as Japan took down the USA by a scoreline of 3-2. The game, which aired on FS1, averaged 5.2 million viewers, peaking at 6.5 million viewers during the Ohtani-Trout duel in the bottom of the ninth inning.
That type of viewership clearly inspired Fox to open up some broadcast windows for the event.
The network announced the broadcast agreement during its MLB playoff coverage on Tuesday, with David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter all sharing their experiences from past World Baseball Classics.
Fox will now try to build off the momentum of the 2023 event. The 2026 World Baseball Classic begins March 5.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.