NBC Sports hasn’t begun its new TV rights deal with Major League Baseball, but it’s already looking at the future.
After securing rights to the Sunday Night Baseball package, NBC Sports President Rick Cordella told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch that it is committed to the sport for the long term, not just the three-year contract it signed earlier this year.
“I think whenever we get into a deal with someone, it’s not for just the period of time,” Cordella said. “Fox has had baseball since NBC exited back in the early 2000s, and the NBA didn’t come to market for almost 20 years. So whenever you do these deals and become an incumbent, it really puts you in the pole position to sort of look ahead and do many other deals into the future.”
As part of the new MLB TV package, NBC Sports purchased the rights to Sunday Night Baseball that was previously seen on ESPN, as well as the package that was previously owned by Roku for the Sunday morning window, and the Wild Card round.
The network is paying $200 million per year for the new deal, significantly less than the $550 million ESPN spent for the package.
And while the contract only runs from 2026 through 2028, Cordella says NBC Sports is making plans to be in the baseball business for years to come.
“At the end of it, my hope and expectation is that we’re in business for baseball for a super long time,” Cordella concluded.
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