NBC Sports President Rick Cordella has wasted no time looking beyond the network’s newly announced three-year partnership with Major League Baseball.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch, Cordella made it clear that he views the 2026–2028 agreement not as a short-term experiment, but as the opening chapter of what he hopes will become a decades-long relationship between NBC and America’s pastime.
The MLB returns to NBC
“When you get into business with a league, you don’t think of it as just the term of the contract,” Cordella explained. “Look at what happened with Fox—they inherited baseball when we stepped away after 2000 and have essentially held those rights ever since. The NBA stayed off the market for nearly two decades once its last big package was set. Being the incumbent broadcaster gives you enormous leverage. It puts you in pole position for every future negotiation.”
The new deal marks the return of Major League Baseball to NBC for the first time since Bill Clinton was in office, ending a 26-year absence from the national baseball stage.
Starting next year, NBC and its streaming service Peacock will air a robust slate that includes 25 exclusive Sunday night games, the entire best-of-three Wild Card round, 18 Sunday morning games (the package previously carried by Roku), and a standalone Labor Day primetime contest.
Financially, the agreement represents a bargain compared to recent baseball rights fees. NBC and Peacock are reportedly paying in the neighborhood of $200 million per year—less than half of the $550 million ESPN had been contributing annually before the network exercised an opt-out clause in its previous contract.
The first game under the new pact will air Thursday, March 26, 2026, when the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks in an exclusive primetime season opener.
NBC’s big plans for the MLB
Cordella openly described the three-year term as something of a proving ground. “This is a chance for both sides to get comfortable with each other,” he said.
The timing is no accident. NBC’s deal expires simultaneously with the current FOX and TNT Sports packages in 2028, giving MLB the rare opportunity to bring every major national rights holder to the table at once and potentially reimagine its entire media landscape in one sweeping negotiation.
To make Sunday Night Baseball feel like appointment television again, NBC plans to borrow heavily from the playbook that has made Sunday Night Football the most-watched prime-time program in America for more than a decade.
Expect a live national anthem performance before first pitch, an on-site pregame studio show modeled after Fox’s highly regarded presentation—complete with Kevin Burkhardt, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter handling those duties—and a deliberate emphasis on star power in the booth and studio.
While no on-air talent has been officially announced for NBC’s baseball coverage, Cordella stressed that the network intends to hire “big, recognizable names” who can elevate the broadcasts and give them an unmistakable sense of occasion.
Ultimately, whether NBC remains in the baseball business past 2028 will come down to two things: ratings performance and MLB’s strategic priorities when it renegotiates its full portfolio.
Cordella is betting that strong viewership numbers, coupled with the promotional muscle of NBCUniversal and the growing reach of Peacock, will make the network an indispensable partner.
What’s ahead for NBC
The inventory is certainly there to make a statement—dozens of high-profile games across multiple windows, playoff exposure, and the prestige of the Sunday night showcase.
“My hope—and my expectation—is that we’re going to be in the baseball business for a super long time,” Cordella told Deitsch.
“That’s how we’re approaching it internally, and that’s the message we’re sending to the league.”
For a network that once defined baseball on television for generations of fans, the next three years represent more than just a return to the diamond.
They are an audition for a permanent seat at the table when Major League Baseball decides what its future looks like beyond 2028.
If Rick Cordella has his way, NBC’s logo will be stitched onto that future for decades to come.
