Major League Baseball has announced a new partnership with national broadcaster NBC Sports to stream games for the Athletics (A’s), San Francisco Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies direct-to-consumers (DTC) through its regional sports networks (RSNs).
Under the agreement, Athletics games will be shown locally on NBC Sports California, while Giants games will be available on NBC Sports Bay Area, and Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia through the MLB.TV platform during the 2025 season.
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Viewers in the teams’ home territories can watch the networks’ game coverage live and on-demand with live pre-and post-game shows through the league’s streaming service.
With this agreement, 26 of the 30 MLB franchises now have a DTC streaming option available in market which effectively eliminates local blackouts for their fans. Games appearing on one of MLB’s national partners’ platforms will not be available on MLB.TV.
Packages for the A’s and Giants will be available for a monthly cost of $19.99 and can be bundled with MLB.TV’s out-of-market games for $39.99 a month. The Phillies package will be available for $24.99 per month and can be bundled with MLB.TV’s out-of-market package for $44.99 per month.
The deal comes quickly after US media giant NBCUniversal announced the addition of its four RSNs to its Peacock streaming platform as add-on subscriptions.
Between them, the four NBC Sports networks have local broadcast rights for games featuring teams and franchises in the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, as well as across San Francisco’s Bay Area and California.
The MLB teams’ games available to subscribers include the A’s, Giants, and Phillies.
Noah Garden, MLB deputy commissioner of business and media, said: “We have been hard at work with our clubs and RSNs to address one of the top issues that baseball fans have had for years, which has been blackouts.
“This agreement with NBC marks an important step in that effort as we now have nearly 90% of the league with a DTC streaming option available in their market.”
There have been 13 new DTC streaming options for MLB Clubs (43% of the league) made available during the offseason.
In addition to the A’s, Giants, and Phillies, new offerings for MLB clubs available for the 2025 season include the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.
Launched in 2024, MLB Network is now also available DTC and is also included with MLB.TV out-of-market subscriptions.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers have agreed a new sponsorship deal with DirecTV.
DirecTV signage and messaging will be visible in various places in-stadium at Globe Life Field for games, including on the video board, on the LED ribbon boards, and on IPTV programming throughout the venue, as well as the Texas Live! entertainment complex adjacent to the ballpark.
This deal comes in addition to the carriage agreement signed earlier this year between the two parties to distribute Rangers games to residential and commercial customers.
