Netflix will have exclusive streaming coverage of next seasons Opening Night matchup between the Yankees and Giants, reports . Those teams will kick off the season with a standalone game at Oracle Park on Wednesday, March 25. Everyone elses season will begin the following day, aligning with MLBs usual practice of opening on the final Thursday in March. Thats not the only significant get for Netflix. Marchand reports that the streaming corporation will also get the Home Run Derby for the next three seasons and share broadcasts of a few special location games (e.g. Field of Dreams, Rickwood Field) with NBC. Netflix and MLB are signing a Justin Holiday Jersey three-year deal which Marchand reports will pay the league roughly $225-250MM annually. Opening Night and the Home Run Derby were previously part of MLBs long-running deal with ESPN. That collapsed in February when both sides of the contract for the 2026-28 seasons. ESPN sought to renegotiate at a le ser rights fee. MLB instead partitioned the package which included the Derby, Sunday Night Baseball, and the Wild Card round and has hammered out a few smaller deals with different companies. Marchand reported last month that Netflix was making a bid for the Derby, and theyve apparently reached that agreement. He adds today that NBC and its streaming service Peacock will pick up Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card round from 2026-28. (ESPN will still have next weeks first round as part of the final season of the previous agreement.) NBC is also expected to pay around $225-250MM per season on a three-year contract. Therell also be a change to the regular season games on Sunday mornings. Roku has carried those since early 2024. reported last month that NBC, which had carried those games on Peacock from 2022-23, would reacquire those rights. Rokus deal ran through the end of 2026. Its not clear if Peacock will pick those broadcasts up a year early or wait until the 27 season. ESPN will also remain a partner of the league on a much bigger deal. Marchand reported in August that the broadcaster was with MLB to license the rights to teams out-of-market games, which have been part of the MLB.tv package. ESPN also gets in-market rights for the Rockies, Twins, Diamondbacks, Padres and Guardians the five clubs whose broadcasts have been handled by the league since their regional TV deals collapsed. ESPN also gets 30 exclusive national games to replace what it lost on Sunday nights; those games will now be on weekdays. Thats also a three-year arrangement. Marchand reports that ESPN will pay the league $1.65 billion in total matching the $550MM annual sum it would have paid for Sunday nights, the Derby, and the Wild Card round had it not opted out. Its not a coincidence that all these deals run through 2028. MLBs preexisting contracts with Fox (which carries the World Series, the ALCS, the ALDS, and the All-Star Game) and Turner (which has the NLDS and NLCS) also expire at the end of the 28 season. Commi sioner Rob Manfred has expre sed a desire to acquire the local in-market rights for every team by that point. That would give MLB the opportunity to shop virtually everything going into 2029. T.J. McConnell Jersey