To watch Games 1 and 2 of Cubs-Padres and White Sox-Astros, fans must watch on Peacock, which costs $12.99 per month, or NBCSN, which is available on Comcast\u2019s Xfinity system and streamers Fubo and YouTube TV. Though Xfinity and YouTube TV are two of the largest pay-TV providers in the country, NBCSN is missing from services such as DirecTV and Astound\/RCN.<\/p>\n
A couple of notes here: I am one of the people impacted by this as I use Sling and despite having multiple sports add-ons had no way to access NBCSN through that platform. Additionally, not to quibble with the Sun-Times, but when I looked at the cost of adding Peacock for the game yesterday it was $19.99 a month and there was no option for a free trial through NBC. I did some digging and found that I could add a 7-day Peacock trial through Amazon Prime, and if I didn\u2019t cancel in seven days the charge would be an additional $19.99 a month. I have also since heard on social media that if you have some cable packages, Peacock is a $5 add-on, for others it\u2019s $9.<\/p>\n
The current maze of streaming, cable and pay-TV options is exhausting. Admittedly, I am taking people\u2019s word on the price they are charged for Peacock right now, and didn\u2019t devote even more hours trying to figure out their pricing tiers and deals. And that\u2019s just Peacock. This season MLB had a handful of deals with multiple streamers who all have their own deals with different providers, etc.<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball deliberately partitioning off a handful of games here and a handful of games there is designed to extract the maximum amount of money from their most engaged fans at a time most Americans feel stretched economically. Want to watch the Home Run Derby? Better have Netflix. Want to watch teams all over the country (except your local team)? Better sign up for MLB.TV. Want to watch your local team? Better pay them for streaming too, and\/or pray your cable or pay-TV option has a deal with them. You can shell out $19.99 a month to subscribe to Marquee Sports Network, right? Want to watch your local team in the playoffs? That\u2019s another $19.99 a month, either to NBC or through an add-on via some other nonsense Subscription as a Service (SAAS) designed to ensure you NEVER pay for just one thing. You\u2019re always shelling out a few dollars here, a few dollars there, and from a company perspective, hopefully forgetting you signed up for that free trial so they can milk you for $19.99 until you figure it out.<\/p>\n
Oh, and it doesn\u2019t stop there. Not only are they hoping you forget you are paying them every month, they can and will raise those rates with as little notice as legally possible until you figure out that what you used to spend $64 a year for has somehow ballooned to $122 in less than two years. Streamflation is real, as reported this month by Nerdist<\/a>:<\/p>\n Last year, we set out to chronicle the number of price hikes we\u2019d see across streaming platforms<\/a>. It had started to feel like every day, a streaming platform would raise its prices and increase its costs to subscribers. And that turned out to be\u2026 basically true. In 2025, we saw a total of SIX streaming price hikes \u2014 averaging out to about one cost increase every other month. While in a vacuum, streaming price increases can feel immaterial, taken altogether, the constant cost hikes are INTENSE. So this year, we\u2019re doing it again. Join us as we take a look at every streaming price hike and cost increase in 2026. Will we be over or under the 2025 total? We\u2019re already tied at 6 streaming price hikes in 2026 and 2025\u2026 So under is off the table\u2026 And over is looking likely.<\/p>\n My apologies for screenshotting the table of contents to summarize this article, there are so many increases, with so much individual nuance, the table of contents<\/a> is the best way to get a sense of the scope of the changes. You really should read the whole thing to get an idea of actual increases and then take a close look at your bill to tally what you\u2019re actually paying for TV and streaming):<\/p>\n Spoiler alert: they are all just really hoping that you never notice it or do the tally. That $7 becoming $9 becoming $14.99 just doesn\u2019t register in the slew of other cost increases that are more in your face each day. It\u2019s hard to escape the conclusion that one-off events like the MLB Wild Card round being on a niche streaming service that\u2019s losing the platform wars are designed to artificially increase their market share. Here is the list of top streaming services in the United States by subscribers according to FlixPatrol<\/a>:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Streaming-cost-increases-2026.jpg\"\/)
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