Just a couple of years after NBC chose to exit its deal with Major League Baseball to air semi-exclusive early-Sunday games on its Peacock streaming service, the network is poised to take the package back.
According to a report by Rob Tornoe in The Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC is expected to reclaim the Sunday morning MLB package that debuted in 2022, but was subsequently sold to Roku after the network opted against re-upping the deal in 2023. NBC paid $30 million per year for the package during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before exiting the agreement. Roku began airing the package of games in 2024, paying $10 million annually in a deal that goes through the 2026 season.
The news comes amid a wider shakeup in MLB’s national media rights. Per prior reports, NBC is expected to take over the vast majority of ESPN’s current MLB package, including Sunday Night Baseball and a slate of Wild Card round games. It is unclear whether the addition of Sunday morning games would begin next season, when the rest of NBC’s deals are set to begin, or if they will begin following the 2026 season, the last in which Roku holds contractual rights to the games. It is also unclear whether this package of games would be included in or additional to the nearly $200 million per year rights fee NBC will reportedly pay MLB.
This update would also seemingly put to bed any suggestion that NBC is acquiring Apple TV+’s current package of Friday night games. An initial report from Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports indicated that Apple would potentially drop its Friday Night Baseball package with NBC in line to pick it up. A report from Austin Karp in Sports Business Journal over the weekend states “the streamer would not be losing its existing package of Friday night games.”
Instead, NBC’s supplemental package will seemingly come from Roku, either in 2026 or 2027.
While it may seem a strange move for NBC to retake a package of games it wasn’t pleased with just two years ago, the Sunday morning inventory makes a lot more sense for the network in conjunction with the Sunday Night Baseball package. As Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch posits, “the Sunday package would give NBCU a makeshift doubleheader on most Sundays during the season and presumably the flexibility to carry afternoon games on its broadcast network in weeks when NBC’s Sunday night NFL and NBA packages take precedence.”
Still, the move marks quite the turnaround for NBC, which only two years ago decided its MLB inventory wasn’t worth the $30 million per year it was paying. However, as the company continues to emphasize live sports as a pillar of Peacock, it has decided that MLB can play a key role in driving consumers to the streaming service, and keeping them subscribed.