For a few minutes last year, ESPN and Major League Baseball appeared to have struck out. A decades-old alliance was torn asunder, with the Disney sports giant backing away from its long-running “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Those Sunday games have gone to NBC, but ESPN believes it has gotten its corporate mitt on something better.
ESPN on Friday started distributing MLB.TV via the ESPN App and ESPN.com., a venture that ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro has long coveted. The pact, part of a realignment of MLB’s sports-rights relationships gives ESPN purview over thousands of games that are made available to fans outside a specific home team’s market — widely seen as some of the most passionate and enthusiastic among followers of the national pastime.
“This allows us to provide more to baseball fans,” says Ashley O’Connor, vice president of programming and acquisitions of ESPN, during a recent interview. The new arrangement “is super serving that avid baseball fan who does watch 162 games a year, and gives them that opportunity to do it within the ESPN environment.”
While ESPN will televise 30 national games each season as part of its new arrangement with the baseball league, the MLB.TV service is an add-on. Current subscribers to ESPN’s “Unlimited” tier can purchase MLB.TV for $134.99 for the 2026 season, and then renew seasonally at the then-current price. Fans without the “Unlimited” plan can purchase MLB.TV for $149.99 seasonally, with a free month of ESPN Unlimited included. Monthly subscription options are also available for $29.99, with new subscribers eligible for a free month of ESPN Unlimited.
Subscribers will be able to watch games via the digital platforms of either ESPN or MLB, says O’Connor.
Whatever their decision, chances are more baseball fans who aren’t as tied to ESPN will gain more familiarity with its platforms.
ESPN’s move into local and regional games comes as Major League Baseball is trying to take more control over the properties, a nod to the waning fortunes of stand-alone cable networks devoted to the telecasts of regional sports teams. MLB now controls local broadcast rights for half of its 30 teams, largely due to the deteriorating economics of Main Street Sports Group, a consortium of regional sports networks that has seen several baseball teams exit pacts.
ESPN and the league may work to develop MLB.TV over time, the executive says. “I do think that together we can continue to evolve,” she says. “MLB.TV has been around for a long time and is a great service, but I do think that with two sets of minds, we can figure out how to make it better.”
More is on the way. In 2027, ESPN will be able to deliver local teams to viewers in their own markets, an arrangement that is likely to grow as MLB seeks to be more involved in its teams distribution arrangements.
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