Last year, ESPN and Major League Baseball seemed to have struck out. The Disney sports giant has pulled out of its long-running “Sunday Night Baseball” franchise, tearing apart a decades-long partnership.
Although these Sunday games have moved to NBC, ESPN believes it has fulfilled its corporate mission for something better.
ESPN on Friday began distributing MLB.TV through the ESPN app and ESPN.com, a long-sought venture by ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. The agreement, part of MLB’s realignment of sports rights relations, gives ESPN the power to make thousands of games available to fans outside of a particular home team’s market, and the games are widely recognized as some of the most passionate and frenzied games among fans of the national pastime.
“This will allow us to provide more information to baseball fans,” Ashley O’Connor, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions, said in a recent interview. The new arrangement “will greatly benefit avid baseball fans who watch 162 games a year, giving them the opportunity to do so within an ESPN environment.”
ESPN will televise 30 games each season as part of a new agreement with the baseball league, but the MLB.TV service is an add-on. Current subscribers to ESPN’s “Unlimited” slot can purchase MLB.TV for the 2026 season for $134.99 and renew each season thereafter at the then-current price. Fans who don’t subscribe to the “Unlimited” plan can purchase MLB.TV seasonally for $149.99. Includes one free month of ESPN Unlimited. A monthly subscription option is also available for $29.99, and new subscribers get one month of ESPN Unlimited for free.
O’Connor said subscribers will be able to watch the games on ESPN or MLB’s digital platforms.
Whatever they decide, there’s a good chance baseball fans who aren’t as tied to ESPN will become more comfortable with the platform.
ESPN’s entry into local and regional games comes as Major League Baseball seeks to tighten control of its facilities and is a nod to the decline of independent cable networks that specialize in televising regional sports teams. MLB currently controls the local broadcast rights for half of its 30 teams, largely due to the deterioration of Main Street Sports Group, a consortium of regional sports networks with which several baseball teams have terminated their agreements.
ESPN and the league could work on developing MLB.TV over time, executives say. “I believe we can continue to evolve together,” she says. “MLB.TV has been around for a long time and is a great service, but I think with two minds we can find ways to make it better.”
There’s more on the way. In 2027, ESPN will be able to broadcast local teams to viewers in their respective markets. This arrangement could expand further as MLB looks to become more involved in team distribution arrangements.
