Netflix to stream Major League Baseball’s 2026 Opening Day game

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https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/666...ning-day-2026/

The streamer has signed a three-year deal with MLB that will begin with showing the March 25 Opening Day matchup between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants. “This primetime matchup is the only game that day, with the rest of the clubs opening the next day,” says The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. “Netflix will also have the Home Run Derby and is expected to share a handful of special location event regular-season games with NBC/Peacock, including Field of Dreams, MLB at Rickwood Field and the MLB Speedway game, which debuted in August. Those games have been broadcast by Fox Sports in the past. Fox may still have unique regular-season event games.”

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MLB fans voice frustration with Netflix Opening Day

Baseball fans made their frustration loud and clear over Wednesday's season opener between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants ...

• WWE’s Jey and Jimmy Uso joining Netflix MLB Opening Night Yankees-Giants broadcast
  
• Jameis Winston latest big name added to Netflix’s Opening Night MLB coverage
  
• Barry Bonds officially joins Netflix MLB Opening Night broadcast
  
• Michael Kay: ‘It sucks’ that Netflix is taking Yankees’ opener from YES Network
  
• Netflix reveals full MLB Opening Night broadcast team
  
• Lauren Shehadi joining Netflix as in-game reporter for MLB Opening Night
  
• Matt Vasgersian reportedly in line to call Netflix’s MLB Opening Night game
  
• Nielsen to measure MLB games on Netflix this season
  
• Netflix reportedly pursuing Barry Bonds, CC Sabathia for Opening Day broadcast
  
• Elle Duncan confirmed as Netflix’s lead MLB host

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Netflix looked desperate promoting itself in MLB debut

Netflix had a clean MLB Opening Day broadcast with big-name talent, but the streaming giant pushed a bit too hard.

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LANGUAGE WARNING

Major League Baseball opened the regular season with a premiere on Netflix Wednesday night. Unfortunately for Netflix...Major League Baseball was the latest sporting event that proved Netflix isn't ready for primetime. We reveal and react to MLB debut on Netflix.

We discuss Elle Duncan being criticized by MLB fans...for her lack of baseball knowledge. We react to Netflix using the debut of Major League Baseball...as endless promotion for Netflix content. We also explain why major sporting events belong on the broadcast networks.

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The platform paid for the rights to broadcast the season opener and marketed it as a big deal. Netflix has broadcast sports before, and viewers are used to it cross-marketing its other projects often. Whether it was the speed of the game or just trying to do too much, the whole production ended up feeling disjointed.

Netflix's score bug went viral on social media, despite how bad it was. The broadcast completely missed the first-ever ABS challenge in MLB regular-season history, and the ads for Netflix's projects were shown almost as much as the game itself. It was a rough debut for the platform that will broadcast the 2026 Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game.

Bert Kresicher bombed on MLB Opening Night. That was Netflix’s fault.

Producers have to put funny people in situations where they're allowed to be funny. Kreischer didn't get that courtesy.