As expected, MLB.tv will be headed to ESPN for the 2026 season.
The league’s out-of-market offering, essentially baseball’s version of NFL Sunday Ticket, will be housed within the ESPN app beginning next year, as Puck’s John Ourand reports that a deal has been “finalized,” though it has not yet been announced. In fact, none of MLB’s new three-year media rights pacts with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix have been officially announced yet, though the league’s commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed in September that MLB had reached agreements in principle with the three aforementioned partners.
Ourand’s reporting is the first confirmation that ESPN’s reported agreement to place MLB.tv within its new direct-to-consumer app has been finalized. He also reports that, despite the recent carriage agreement between Disney and YouTube TV that will see all of ESPN Unlimited content available to YouTube TV subscribers within the Google-owned platform, MLB.tv will not be included as part of that offering. Instead, it would appear that MLB.tv will be available exclusively within the ESPN app, presumably at an additional cost for subscribers.
ESPN, of course, set off the chain reaction that had MLB scrambling for short-term media rights agreements earlier this year when it opted out of its Sunday Night Baseball package. In response, assuming prior reporting holds, MLB sold ESPN’s old inventory to NBC and Netflix, with NBC set to air Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card games formerly held by ESPN, and Netflix securing the Home Run Derby and Opening Night. The league then carved out a separate, previously unsold package of games for ESPN, which will include a weeknight telecast, placing MLB.tv on the ESPN app, and local games for the five clubs in which MLB controls local broadcast rights.
It’s unclear exactly what is holding up official announcements from the league, but it appears the deals are solidified to the point that ESPN is accounting for them in the course of distribution negotiations.
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.