Netflix will feature Major League Baseball\u2019s Opening Day game between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants next year, sources briefed on the move told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
As part of the new three-year agreement between the MLB and the giant streamer, the Yankees\u2019 March 25 opener at San Francisco will be Netflix\u2019s first exclusive stream and will begin the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
This primetime matchup is the only game that day, with the rest of the clubs opening the next day.<\/p>\n
Netflix will also have the Home Run Derby and is expected to share a handful of special location event regular-season games with NBC\/Peacock, including \u201cField of Dreams,\u201d \u201cMLB at Rickwood Field\u201d and the \u201cMLB Speedway\u201d game, which debuted in August. Those games have been broadcast by Fox Sports in the past. Fox may still have unique regular-season event games.<\/p>\n
MLB declined to comment.<\/p>\n
These moves are all part of three-year deals that MLB is expected to announce in the coming weeks. The negotiations on these contracts took place after this past February, when ESPN opted out of the final three years of a deal in which it was set to pay $550 million on average.<\/p>\n
MLB divided up ESPN\u2019s old package of Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and the playoffs to Netflix and NBC\/Peacock.<\/p>\n
To retain the around $1.65B it relinquished after the ESPN opt-out, MLB shopped an extra package, which has resulted in an agreement in place<\/a> with ESPN to license its out-of-market package, MLB.TV games and five local teams in-market games to ESPN for the next three years. ESPN will also have 30 exclusive national weekday games. ESPN is expected to pay the same $1.65B in total for its next set of rights.<\/p>\n The exact figures for the MLB-Netflix and MLB-NBC\/Peacock three-year deals are not yet known, but are expected to be in the $225 million to $250 million per season range, according to sources briefed on discussions.<\/p>\n