| Major League Baseball on NBC | |
|---|---|
 Major League Baseball on NBC logo circa1999. | |
| Also known as | The NBC Game of the Week Baseball Night in America MLB Sunday Leadoff Sunday Night Baseball |
| Genre | American baseball game telecasts |
| Directed by | Harry Coyle[1][2][3][4][5] Ted Nathanson[6] John Gonzalez Doug Grabert Bucky Gunts Andy Rosenberg[7] |
| Presented by | Various commentators |
| Theme music composer | Randy Edelman Kevin Gavin[8] Clark Gault Steve Martin Scott Schreer[9] Mitch & Ira Yuspeh |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Scotty Connal Don Ohlmeyer Michael Weisman[10] Terry O'Neill[11] Dick Ebersol Tom Roy |
| Producers | David Neal[12][13] Roy Hammerman George Finkel John J. Filippelli[14][15][16] Kenneth Roy Edmundson Les Dennis |
| Cinematography | Tom Adza Jim Bragg Eric A. Eisenstein Rick Fox Lou Gerard Steve Gonzalez Dave Hage Thomas K. Hogan Cory Leible Vaughn Kilgore Jim Lynch Tim O'Neill Albert Rice, Jr. Luis Rojas Nick Utley |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 180 minutes or until game ends |
| Production company | NBC Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 30, 1947 (1947-09-30) – October 9, 1989 (1989-10-09) |
| Network | The Baseball Network (ABC andNBC) |
| Release | July 12, 1994 (1994-07-12) – October 28, 1995 (1995-10-28) |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | July 9, 1996 (1996-07-09) – October 17, 2000 (2000-10-17) |
| Network | Peacock |
| Release | May 8, 2022 (2022-05-08) – September 3, 2023 (2023-09-03) |
| Network | NBC NBCSN Peacock Telemundo,TeleXitos andUniverso (Spanish audio/broadcast) |
| Release | March 26, 2026 (2026-03-26) |
| Related | |
| Major League Baseball Game of the Week Major League Baseball: An Inside Look Monday Night Baseball Sunday Night Baseball | |
Major League Baseball on NBC is the de facto branding for weekly broadcasts ofMajor League Baseball (MLB) games produced byNBC Sports, and televised on theNBC television network and its streaming servicePeacock.
Major League Baseball games first aired on NBC from1947 to1989, includingThe NBC Game of the Week, whenCBS acquired the broadcast television rights.[17]
Games returned to NBC in1994 as part ofThe Baseball Network, atime-brokered package of broadcasts produced by Major League Baseball and split withABC. After The Baseball Network folded after the1995 season, NBC retained a smaller package through2000, alternating rights to a package of postseason games withFox (with NBC carrying theNational League Championship Series andWorld Series in odd-numbered years, and theAmerican League Championship Series andAll-Star Game in even-numbered years).
TheComcast SportsNet regional sports networks became part of NBC Sports afterComcastacquiredNBCUniversal in 2011; they currently hold rights to theAthletics,Philadelphia Phillies, andSan Francisco Giants.
For the first time since 2000, regular season baseball returned to NBC in2022 after the network agreed to a deal with the league forMLB Sunday Leadoff. One game per season would air on NBC, with the remainder of the games on the streaming service Peacock. This deal was short lived, with the contract ending after the2023 season.
Major League Baseball announced a new national media rights agreement with NBC covering broadcasts and streaming from 2026 to 2028. The deal includes NBC taking over broadcasts ofSunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card round from ESPN, with the return ofMLB Sunday Leadoff to Peacock starting March 26, 2026.[18]
From1947 to1956 and again in1965, NBC only aired theAll-Star Game (beginning in1950) andWorld Series. From1957 to1989, NBC aired the Saturday afternoonGame of the Week (or a variation of it prior to1966, when NBC did not hold the exclusive over-the-air television rights). From1994 to1995, NBC aired games under ajoint broadcasting venture with Major League Baseball andABC calledThe Baseball Network. From1996 to2000, NBC's league coverage was reduced to postseason games (threeDivision Series games in prime time, theAmerican League Championship Series in even-numbered years, and theNational League Championship Series and World Series in odd-numbered years), as well as the All-Star Game in even-numbered years (during years when NBC did not hold the rights to the World Series).
A June 4, 2006Broadcasting & Cable article stated that Fox may have considered a partnership with another network (which ultimately, turned out to beTBS) for the next contract. NBC was the only network named in connection to a possible partnership in the article. The setup being suggested was similar to the last time NBC had the rights to baseball, that being NBC would get the rights to some League Championship Series games and alternate rights to the World Series andAll-Star Game with Fox, which may or may not have kept theGame of the Week. After weeks of speculation and rumors, on July 11, 2006, at theAll-Star Game, Major League Baseball announced a renewal of its existing current with Fox Sports through2013, allowing Fox to retain exclusive television rights to the World Series and the All-Star Game (the World Series would begin the Wednesday after the League Championship Series are completed). The deal also allowed Fox to retain the SaturdayGame of the Week and gave it broadcast rights to one League Championship Series annually. This ruled out baseball returning to NBC, as the two annual showpiece events were not available in any contract NBC might obtain before then.
OLN (laterNBCSN) briefly considered acquiring the rights to the Sunday andWednesday games, which expired after the2005 season. However, on September 14, 2005, existing rightsholderESPN signed an eight-year contract with the league, highlighted by the continuation of ESPN'sSunday Night Baseball with additional, exclusive team appearances. Currently, NBCUniversal parentComcast owns 5.44% of the MLB Network and featured aNew York Mets–San Francisco Giants game with Bob Costas and Al Michaels (who while working for theCincinnati Reds had previously helped call the1972 World Series for NBC and from2006-2021, served as the play-by-play voice forNBC'sSunday Night Football telecasts) in July 2011.
The New York Times, however, reported that it was unlikely that NBC would get baseball, as NBC would have had to preempt up to three weeks ofNFL coverage on Sunday nights. However, the NFL used to not schedule a Sunday night game on the second night of the World Series, which meant that NBC gaining the rights was not completely out of the question (however, the following Sunday, in which a possible World Series Game 7 was scheduled, a Sunday night NFL game was also scheduled). In addition to this, other Sunday playoff games, such as the ALCS and NLCS could be pushed to the afternoon. This might not have been appetizing to league officials, as major playoff games would have gone up head-to-head against highly rated afternoon NFL games (as opposed to today's system, in which only one game out of two for the day would go up against network NFL broadcasts).[19]
During the summer of 2012, NBC Sports was reportedly involved in negotiations for a television contract with Major League Baseball.[20] NBCSN was expected to play a large part in NBC's bid.[21] However, it was likely that NBC would want either marquee event (All-Star Game and World Series) to air on the broadcast network rather than cable. This could have potentially conflicted with NBC's broadcasts ofSunday Night Football, which has generally had a game or two scheduled on nights when a World Series game is held since2010; however, prior to this, no game was scheduled on these nights so it would not have been unprecedented. Besides the potential conflicts withSunday Night Football, another disadvantage[22] for NBCSN is that it was available in fewer than 80 million homes, trailing the national reach of bothFox Sports 1 andTBS.
On August 28, 2012, Major League Baseball and ESPN agreed to an eight-year, $5.6 billion contract extension, the largest broadcasting deal in Major League Baseball history. It gave ESPN the rights to up to 90 regular-season games, alternating rights to one of the two Wild Card games (between American League and National League teams) each year, and the rights to all regular-season tiebreaker games. On September 19, 2012,Sports Business Daily[23][24] reported that the league would agree to separate eight-year television deals[25] with Fox Sports andTurner Sports[26] through the 2021 season. On October 2, 2012, the new deal between Major League Baseball andTBS was officially confirmed;[27][28][29] NBC looked to be left without a package,[30] because though it made an offer, Major League Baseball did not consider NBC a serious bidder after the ESPN deal was made public. Sources said that NBC did not make a strong offer, and that it was most interested in ESPN's package, which included exclusivity onSunday night and rights to the two mid-week games. When ESPN took that package, NBC's interest waned.[31]
On June 14, 2021, NBC Sports announced that it would stream thePhiladelphia Phillies andSan Francisco Giants' June 18–20 series exclusively for free onNBCUniversal's streaming servicePeacock. The local rights to both teams are owned by theNBC Sports Regional Networks, and the games featured a mixture of personnel from the teams' broadcasts onNBC Sports Bay Area andNBC Sports Philadelphia: the commentary team featured the Giants'Jon Miller on play-by-play, with his partnerMike Krukow, and the Phillies'John Kruk andJimmy Rollins, serving as analysts.[32][33]
Peacock would ultimately acquire a new package of 18 Sunday afternoon games[34][35] from each participating team,[36] beginning in the2022 Major League Baseball season, branded asMLB Sunday Leadoff.[37] Peacock's first game aired on May 8 between theChicago White Sox[34] andBoston Red Sox,[38][39] and was alsosimulcast[40] on the NBC broadcast network (marking its first MLB broadcast since2000[41]). It also had officially been 7,873 days[41] since NBC last televised a Major League Baseball game.
The agreement also included rights to theAll-Star Futures Game,[42] and an MLB content hub on Peacock with classic games and other content.[43][37]
The contract ended following the2023 season and would move toThe Roku Channel in2024.[44]
In 2025, reports emerged that NBC was involved in negotiations for the broadcast rights toSunday Night Baseball.ESPN opted out of its agreement to air the package in 2025.[45][46] The package could include the broadcast rights to theWild Card Series, which ESPN also previously aired.[47] On November 13, 2025, NBC would announce that they would relaunchNBCSN beginning on November 17. As part of the announcement, NBC hinted towards acquiring the rights to "dozens" of MLB regular season and playoff games in a "soon-to-be-announced agreement".[48]
The agreement was officially announced on November 19, 2025. Through the agreement, NBC acquires:[49]
For many years, theNBC Radio Network also had a role in Major League Baseball coverage. The network shared World Series broadcast rights withCBS beginning in1927, with All-Star Game broadcasts added in1933. TheMutual Broadcasting System joined NBC and CBS in 1935; the three networks continued to share coverage of baseball's "jewels" in this manner through 1938, with Mutual gaining exclusive rights to the World Series in 1939 and the All-Star Game in 1942.
In 1957, NBC replaced Mutual as the exclusive radio broadcaster for the World Series and All-Star Game. The network would continue in this role through 1975, with CBS taking over the rights the following year. NBC Radio did not air regular season games during this period (save for the three-game National League tie-breaker playoff in1962); nor did the network cover the League Championship Series from 1969 to 1975, those series instead having local team radio broadcasts syndicated nationally overad hoc networks.
NBC ended its radio association with baseball after the 1975 season in order to clear space for the network's 24-hour "News and Information" service programming.[50]
| Team | Stations | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia Phillies | NBC Sports Philadelphia | 1998-present |
| Chicago White Sox | NBC Sports Chicago | 2004–2024 |
| Chicago Cubs | 2004–2019 | |
| Athletics | NBC Sports Bay Area (2008 only) NBC Sports California (2009–present) | 2008–present |
| San Francisco Giants | NBC Sports Bay Area | 2008–present |
| Houston Astros | Comcast SportsNet Houston | 2013–2014 |
| Team | Stations | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn Dodgers | W2XBS 4, (later WNBT, now WNBC) | 1939-1945 |
| New York Yankees | 1939-1945 | |
| Philadelphia Phillies | WCAU 10 | 2014–present |
| San Diego Padres | KCST 39 (later KNSD) | 1971-1972;1984-1986 |
| San Francisco Giants | KNTV 11 | 2008–present |
| Texas Rangers | KXAS-TV 5 | 1974–1983;1995-2000 |
Even as WNBC became the first to broadcast Major League Baseball games in 1939 with the pioneer broadcast being that of an August 26 doubleheader at Ebbets Field between theBrooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, it does not have any local broadcasts today, with the over-the-air packages of both the New York Mets and Yankees airing onWPIX, and produced by their cable rightsholdersSportsNet New York (which is partially owned by NBCUniversal) andYES Network respectively. The station has aired numerous Met (since 1962) and Yankee games (and before 1957, games of the Dodgers and Giants) as part of NBC's network coverage, including 18 of the Yankees' World Series appearances (12 of which the team won), and three Mets World Series appearances (two of which the Mets won).
KCST was home toSan Diego Padres games during two different periods, first in the1971 and1972 seasons, and again from1984 to1986. The station also carried any games that were part ofABC's MLB coverage in1976, then over to NBC's MLB broadcasts from1977 to1989; this included the Padres' first World Series appearance in1984; limited postseason games involving the Padres were aired from 1995 to 2000.
KXAS (then WBAP-TV until 1974) airedTexas Rangers games as part of NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from their arrival in1972 until1989, and again for the postseason only from 1994 to 2000.
On November 1, 2007, KNTV entered into a three-year broadcast contract with theSan Francisco Giants through 2010, replacing the team's longtime broadcaster KTVU, which had carried Giants games since 1961, three years after the team moved to the Bay Area and KTVU first began broadcasting. The team's first game broadcast on KNTV aired on April 1,2008. KNTV broadcasts 20 to 40 Giants baseball games a year, which are produced by sister networkNBC Sports Bay Area. In addition, KNTV airsGiants Clubhouse each weekend during theMLB season. All of the Giants broadcasts are carried inhigh definition. The station has preempted Giants telecasts during theSummer Olympics due toNBC currently holding the television rights to the Olympics. The Giants' contract with KNTV concluded at the end of the2010 season, however, the broadcast rights were renewed prior to the2011 season.[51] Thus, it is one of the few major network affiliates that carry live local MLB games to viewers in their broadcast area. Despite this, it does not offer any live over-the-air broadcasts of the American League's Oakland Athletics, which are broadcast exclusively byNBC Sports California on cable.
Since Comcast acquired the WCAU's parent NBCUniversal in 2011, WCAU has aired Philadelphia's major sports teams in many years. Because of those commitments to air these major sports teams, they reschedule NBC network programs preempted on the station. WCAU, as both a CBS and NBC station, has also aired Philadelphia's pro sports teams through their network coverage as well. On January 2, 2014, Comcast and thePhiladelphia Phillies announced a 25-year, $2.5 billion TV contract, including WCAU and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (nowNBC Sports Philadelphia); although it averaged $100 million a year, it was structured to begin below the average and end above it. As part of its 25-year TV contract, WCAU took over free-to-air broadcast rights for Phillies baseball games fromMyNetworkTV affiliateWPHL-TV beginning in the2014 season, including its Opening Day game and selected games aired on the station.[52]
For all of the League Championship Series telecasts spanning from 1969 to 1975, only Game 2 of the1972 American League Championship Series (Oakland vs.Detroit) is known to exist. However, the copy on the trade circuit of Game 2 of the 1972 ALCS is missing theBert Campaneris–Lerrin LaGrow brawl. There are some instances where the only brief glimpse of telecast footage of an early LCS game can be seen in a surviving newscast from that night. For instance, the last out of the1973 National League Championship Series as described byJim Simpson was played on that night'sNBC Nightly News, but other than that, the entire game is gone. On the day theNew York Mets andBaltimore Orioles wrapped up their respective League Championship Series in 1969, a feature story on theCBS Evening News showed telecast clips of theALCS game (there's no original sound, just voiceover narration). This is all that likely remains of anything from that third game of theOrioles–Twins series. Simpson's call of the injury ofReggie Jackson during Game 5 of the 1972 ALCS is heard on the1972 World Series film, as well asCurt Gowdy's call of the home run byJohnny Bench in Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS as well asBob Moose throwing a wild pitch to pinch-hitterHal McRae scoringGeorge Foster with the winning run.[53]
While all telecasts of World Series games starting with1975 are accounted for and exist, the LCS is still a spotty situation through the late 1970s: