MLB becomes the latest US sports league to potentially be under the federal spotlight over its vast amount of broadcast rights packages distributed to increasingly more broadcasters.
After opening an investigation into the NFL over its alleged breach of the Sports Broadcasting Act 1961, the Department of Justice (DOJ) looks set to expand its investigation to Major League Baseball (MLB).
Bloomberg revealed the DOJ is planning to look into MLB’s fragmented broadcast licenses, which span eight different networks, traditional broadcasters, and streaming platforms.
The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, told Bloomberg some sports leagues are “pushing the limits of the Sports Broadcasting Act even further than what the NFL has”, without confirming if this was in relation to MLB.
The Sports Broadcasting Act was introduced to allow major sports leagues to bundle their broadcast rights in order to be sold as single packages, exempt from antitrust violations. However, the DOJ’s investigation is exploring the NFL’s broadcast rights agreements, which have expanded to new streaming platforms for limited games.
Alongside traditional broadcasters such as ESPN/ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, the NFL has broadcast rights agreements with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. To watch all 272 NFL season games, which became possible for the first time during the 2025/26 season, the cost would be around $935.
MLB’s broadcast rights agreements
If taken forward, the DOJ will likely investigate whether the MLB has breached the Sports Broadcasting Act due to the significant number of broadcast rights holders.
Currently, the league has up to eight broadcast partners. NBC has rights for Sunday Night Baseball, the Wild Card games and Sunday Leadoff games, such as for Opening Day and Labor Day games.
ESPN has rights to 30 midweek games, as well as rights to show games from MLB.TV. Netflix holds rights for one Opening Night game per season, as well as the Home Run Derby and the 2026 Field of Dreams game.
FOX broadcasts the World Series and the draft, while TBS airs Tuesday night regular-season and playoff games, and Apple TV picked up rights to stream Friday Night Baseball.
The new broadcast rights agreements with the aforementioned broadcasters came into effect this year and expire in 2028.
In a bid to settle the longstanding issues of the broadcasting of out-of-market local games, Six teams, the Tampa Bay Rays, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers,St Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds, announced on 2 February in separate statements that they will join MLB Media.
The six teams joining MLB Media will also partner with local distributors.
