Baseball is seeing strong viewership during the 2026 season, and a new report says Fox, ESPN and Netflix are all expected to pursue World Series rights—provided a labor stoppage doesn’t derail the sport’s momentum.
The report comes from John Ourand at Puck, who forecasts rising interest in the MLB playoffs and World Series versus the overall tonnage of regular-season games. Fox has carried the World Series for the past 30 years and is interested in keeping it, while ESPN has also expressed interest in the Fall Classic. It would also fit perfectly with Netflix’s event strategy, which is their first year in a limited MLB rights deal that has them broadcast major events like the Home Run Derby and opening night.
The backdrop to any early maneuvering between these companies and others is that Major League Baseball rights will be coming to market either on the heels of the NFL, looking to renegotiate deals with its media partners. Any renegotiated deals with the NFL will see billions of dollars taken off the table in terms of sports rights, a move that many believe will squeeze other leagues, events, and conferences looking for rights increases.
The good news for MLB is that viewership continues to be up this season. NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball package is averaging 51% more viewers than ESPN’s comparable package last season, while Fox and TBS viewership are also up from 2025. Those are much better things to be pointing to versus the narrative of much of 2025 when ESPN and MLB looked down the barrel of a full divorce.
The MLB playoffs are especially valuable. There were 12 playoff games before the World Series last year that averaged more than 5 million viewers, a very strong number for live, non-football sports in the age of cord-cutting.
Collective bargaining between MLB owners and the players will be crucial for baseball’s long-term future. With so much momentum in terms of ratings and attendance, a work stoppage, even one that lasts only a few months, could be detrimental. But those negotiations could also provide a boon for media rights. If the two sides can agree to expand the playoffs, such as making the Wild Card Series a best-of-five and the Division Series a best-of-seven, it would create more live inventory and increase the value of the rights for interested media companies. The last collective bargaining resulted in the current expanded Wild Card series. More October baseball has long juiced ratings and television rights deals. Not long ago the MLB playoffs were conducted with just four teams and could be as short as only twelve games.
So while Fox, ESPN and Netflix all appear interested in MLB’s biggest property, the league’s next rights cycle may depend just as much on labor peace and the outcome of the NFL’s own media negotiations as it does on baseball’s strong ratings. Will Fox be displaced, or is it possible we could see the World Series rotate similarly to the Stanley Cup?
