NBC Sports is gunning for the biggest takeover of Sunday nights since The Sopranos.
With NBC in negotiations with Major League Baseball, the network could roll out a year-round programming lineup featuring Sunday Night Baseball, Sunday Night Basketball, and Sunday Night Football.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday afternoon that NBC and MLB are nearing a three-year deal “approaching” $200 million per year, and that the network is also bidding on rights to some postseason games. FOS can confirm that NBC is negotiating for rights to the wild-card round of the MLB playoffs.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football has proved to be a powerful tool when it comes to negotiating new media-rights deals with the NBA and now MLB. SNF has ruled as the No. 1 show in prime time for a record 14 years. To put that in perspective, that’s more than double the six-year reign of American Idol and five-year run of All in the Family. The show averaged a total audience delivery of 21.6 million viewers during the 2024 season, its best since 2015. As the cable TV ecosystem crumbles, free, over-the-air broadcast networks like NBC are back in vogue among sports leagues.
If NBC lands MLB rights, it will be able to sell a yearlong lineup of primetime sports on Sunday nights to advertisers. NBC aired MLB games from 1947 to 1989, including the NBC Game of the Week.
NBC will return to the hardwood this fall for the first time in almost 24 years, with live games on the broadcast network and Peacock streaming platform. Once NBC wraps its 2025 season of SNF, the network will immediately roll into Sunday Night Basketball starting Feb. 1, 2026, with LeBron James’s Lakers visiting Jalen Brunson’s Knicks at the Mecca of Basketball: Madison Square Garden.
The conclusion of MLB’s media talks is mere weeks away, according to commissioner Rob Manfred. As Ryan Glasspiegel and Eric Fisher reported for FOS this week, NBC and Peacock are vying for MLB’s Friday and Sunday night games against a laundry list of competitors, including Netflix, Apple, and ESPN. ESPN is more interested in local rights and the out-of-market MLB.TV package, say sources, while Netflix is interested in Home Run Derby.
As Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports wrote on X/Twitter: “To reiterate: Nothing is finalized, BUT…NBC could soon have: Sunday Night Football in the fall. Sunday Night Basketball in the winter. Sunday Night Baseball in the summer.”
With viewers at home getting ready for work the next day, Sunday nights have long been the most popular night for TV viewing. Many of the most famous shows in history have aired on Sunday evenings, including SNF, HBO’s The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, and AMC’s The Walking Dead and Mad Men. But those days are over. Live sports are the pillar that’s now binding TV together—including Sunday nights.
If NBC gets its way, it will command a one-two-three punch of MLB, NBA, and NFL on Sunday nights. That’s not a bad hand to play as it competes with giant streamers like Apple, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube TV.
