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.

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.

ESPN and parent company Disney, after years of effort and planning, have finally cleared the major hurdle of bringing a direct-to-consumer product to market. Next up are two more obstacles, perhaps as complex, if not more so: getting people to understand the streaming product and sign up, and evaluating how well the large-scale strategic pivot performs.

The revamped ESPN app will debut Thursday, offering live streaming of all 12 of its networks, as well as a deep array of enhanced interactive features that arrive with the DTC product. A massive corporate priority for Disney, the new-look app, carrying a marketing slogan of “All of ESPN. All in one place,” will feature:

• An enhanced second-screen experience that will include live statistics, alerts, fantasy content, shopping, and integration with ESPN Bet.
• A personalized daily version of SportsCenter, tailored to each user’s favorite teams and leagues. 
• A TikTok-style vertical video experience, called Verts, that will feature short-form videos.
• A deeper integration with Disney+, which started last December, in which the full ESPN content lineup is available for bundle subscribers on that flagship product.
• It’s also possible MLB content could be added as part of a reworked rights deal currently in negotiation between ESPN and the league.

“We’re at the verge of another industry-shaping moment,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro of the DTC debut and rebuilt app. 

A Bundle of Bundles

As announced in May, the new-look ESPN will feature an unbundled price of $29.99 per month. That’s hardly the only way for users to access the expanded service, though. There is also a broader bundle including ad-based versions of sister properties Disney+ and Hulu, also carrying a promotional price of $29.99 per month. 

There are additional bundles between ESPN and its new equity partner, the NFL, that bring in NFL+ Premium, and another that combines ESPN with Fox One, debuting Thursday as well. Pitaro also says ESPN remains keenly interested in striking more partnerships. 

Existing TV-based subscribers, meanwhile, can also authenticate into the expanded ESPN features. There will be some minor variances, though, in the amount of content available depending on Disney’s carriage deal with each distributor. 

With all these different ways to subscribe to ESPN and then access the additional features, network executives acknowledge there is a significant lift to help consumers navigate all the choices. Because of that, marketing is expected to shift soon from a focus on the huge array of available content to accessing it.

“We recognize the complexity of this. We recognize that we need to simplify it for all of our fans,” said ESPN EVP of creative studio and marketing Tina Thornton. “It’s teaching not just what we’re doing but how you get to it.”

Understanding the Metrics

Will the big pivot to streaming work for ESPN and Disney? There’s plenty of logic behind the move, particularly as cord-cutting and cord-nevering expand at an accelerating rate. 

It’s going to be harder to measure the success externally, though. Pitaro has consistently said performance will be gauged based on the totality of people subscribing to ESPN through all the various platforms. The plurality of entry points not only makes that more difficult to assess, but Disney said earlier this month it will stop releasing streaming subscription totals to investors, similar to the shift made earlier this year by Netflix. 

There will still be other key numbers in Disney’s quarterly earnings reports, such as revenue and net income, as well as external figures developed by third parties such as Nielsen. For the first time in ESPN’s 46-year history, though, there will not necessarily be a clear, public, and total measure of the network’s subscriber base.

“We’re also going to be paying a lot of attention to engagement within the ESPN app,” Pitaro said. “However you’re subscribed, we want you to experience ESPN through the ESPN app.”

What’s old is new again. 

NFL Network’s Rich Eisen will return to his old stomping grounds in Bristol, Conn., to shoot another special edition of SportsCenter for ESPN this fall.

The former SportsCenter anchor, who drew rave reviews for his first appearance on the show in 22 years Monday night, will headline “periodic special editions” of ESPN’s flagship show moving forward, according to an ESPN spokesperson. 

ESPN says Eisen’s Monday edition averaged 708,000 viewers. That’s 67% higher than the average 11 p.m. ET SportsCenter—and slightly higher than the last SportsCenter Eisen anchored on the network in 2003, which drew 670,000 viewers.

Eisen broke out as a SportsCenter anchor from 1996 to 2003 before becoming the face and voice of the then-new NFL Network. The Rich Eisen Show will debut Sept. 2 on ESPN+, Disney+, and ESPN Radio. While Eisen will maintain his lead anchor role at NFL Network, he’s expected to make select appearances across ESPN’s studio programming.

Utilizing Eisen in the future marks a smart play by SportsCenter. The show is still one of ESPN’s most valuable properties. The 56-year-old anchor is a living symbol of the show’s glory days in the 1990s, when wisecracking SportsCenter anchors like himself, Dan Patrick, and Craig Kilborn were the proverbial coolest kids in the room. ESPN threw everything into Eisen’s nostalgic return, including throwback horns, music, and graphics from a broadcast era gone by. He was joined in-studio by NFL analyst Mina Kimes.

Eisen is also closely linked to the late, great anchor Stuart Scott, who’s revered inside and outside ESPN. Fighting back tears, Eisen delivered an emotional tribute to Scott, his former on-air partner who died after a battle with cancer in 2015. Eisen’s continued presence on SportsCenter will reinforce the corporate marriage of the once-rival ESPN and NFLN if the deal is approved by regulatory authorities.

ESPN recently signed 23-year-old Katie Feeney as a sports and lifestyle creator. The Penn State grad will be the daily lead for SportsCenter on SnapChat while making appearances on College GameDay, Sunday NFL Countdown, and Monday Night Countdown. But SportsCenter’s most loyal fans are older viewers who grew up watching the show. Given the popular reaction to Eisen’s appearance, ESPN might want to create an oldies version of the iconic show.

During a press conference previewing ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer platform, president of content Burke Magnus said he was thrilled by the widespread acclaim for Eisen’s SportsCenter return Monday night.

“That was pretty cool. I woke up to a bushel of text messages and emails,” said Magnus.