What do you get the sports fan who has everything?
Maybe another streaming service. Better yet, type them up a list of what they need to access everything they want to watch.
The streaming landscape became more convoluted last week when MLB announced deals with Peacock and Netflix. Here’s our annual holiday-season update on what streaming services now carry which sports:
▪ Amazon Prime: Not only is Amazon completing its third season of streaming Thursday night NFL games, but the corporate giant will stream a wild card game for the second time on Jan. 10.
Amazon has impressed in its first year of NBA coverage, with a strong studio crew (highlighted by Udonis Haslem), a solid lead announcing team (Ian Eagle, Stan Van Gundy) and fancy bells and whistles, including a snazzy regulation half court that Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell recently used to explain the Heat’s new offense.
Amazon’s 11-year NBA contract includes six conference finals through 11 years (May 2027 will be its first), the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, the play-in games, a Friday night double-header and Thursday night games after NFL season ends, a few Thursday games plus some exclusive playoff games.
Also, Amazon’s NBA deal includes 30 regular-season WNBA games annually, a first-round WNBA playoff series each season, seven semifinals and three WNBA Finals series over 11 years.
This week, Amazon will present its first ever Black Friday tripleheader beginning at 3 p.m.: Eagles-Bears (Amazon’s third Black Friday NFL game), Knicks-Bucks and Mavericks-Lakers.
▪ Netflix: The streaming giant expanded its sports portfolio last week when it signed a multiyear deal with MLB for a package that includes exclusive rights to the opening night game (Giants-Yankees March 25), the Home Run Derby, the Field of Dreams game and the World Baseball Classic in 2026. Netflix reportedly will pay $50 million annually.
For the second year, Netflix will carry two Christmas afternoon games — Cowboys-Commanders (Ian Eagle, Nate Burleson, Matt Ryan) and Lions-Vikings (Noah Eagle, Drew Brees).
▪ Peacock: In addition to carrying all NBC Sports broadcasts, the streaming service has a large package of college football and basketball games that don’t air on NBC.
As part of MLB’s new deal with $200-million-per-year deal with Peacock and NBC, Peacock will regain rights to MLB’s Sunday late-morning/noon package of games, which it carried in 2022 and 2023.
Those 18 “Sunday Leadoff” games will be followed by an MLB Network-produced “whip-around” coverage of the all of the day’s games. Peacock will also regularly feature an MLB “Game of the Day,” which will be available to fans outside the markets of the clubs competing.
▪ Apple TV: Next season, Apple will move its MLS games from a League Pass package that required an additional fee to its regular service, without an extra cost beyond the $12.99 monthly subscription fee.
Earlier this year, Apple acquired the exclusive U.S. streaming rights for Formula 1 in a five-year deal that starts in 2026. Apple will stream all practice sessions, qualifying, sprints, and Grands Prix, with some races and all practice sessions offered for free to viewers. The F1 Premium Service includes no additional cost beyond the monthly Apple TV subscription rate.
Apple will continue streaming Friday night MLB double-headers through 2028.
▪ ESPN Select (previously ESPN Plus): This service — not to be confused with the ESPN app or ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service that debuted in September — offers a large package of exclusive college football and basketball games, NHL and WNBA games, plus international soccer events and more.
Keep in mind that ESPN Select is a paid subscription service within the ESPN app. You must subscribe to it to watch the exclusive content, including an out-of-market MLB game each day next season. (More on that below.)
▪ Paramount Plus: Besides all CBS Sports programming, Paramount exclusively carries hundreds of international soccer matches.
▪ YouTube: The media giant — which snagged NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV in December 2022 — ventured into single-live-game streaming of a pro game for the first time with a Chiefs-Chargers Friday night game from Brazil in Week 1. That game attracted 17.3 million viewers worldwide, setting a YouTube record for concurrent viewers of a live stream.
This and that
ESPN’s new MLB deal includes a new and valuable component: Rights to stream out-of-market games.
Those thousands of games now will stream live on the ESPN App, and also will continue to be available on MLB platforms (including MLB.TV) in 2026. That out-of-market package cost $150 last season and is expected to be similarly priced next year.
Also, ESPN will also offer more than 150 out-of-market regular season games every season as part of a new “Game of the Day” for subscribers to the ESPN Unlimited plan.
ESPN will televise 30 carries, but no longer on Sunday nights. The new packages includes several weeknights during summer months, Memorial Day games and games on the first day after the All-Star break.
▪ NBC, which carried Major League Baseball from 1957 to 2000, essentially gets what had been the ESPN package (Sunday night games and the first round of the playoffs), plus the only prime-time game on the second day of the season (Dodgers-Arizona on March 26), a Labor Day night game and rights to air every game regionally on July 5.
NBC’s acquisition of the Sunday MLB package will give the network live sports on nearly every night all season. Sunday night games will air on Peacock when NBC has NBA or NFL games on those days.
All of NBC’s MLB games will stream on Peacock and also will air on NBC’s sports cable channel, NBCSN, which was shuttered at the end of 2021 but relaunched this month. Also notable: NBC, NBCSN and Peacock will carry the MLB Draft on July 11 and the All-Star Futures Game on July 12.
Fox will continue to air a Saturday regular-season package (with some Thursdays), a league championship series and the World Series. TBS will continue to air a regular season package on Tuesdays and a league championship series each year.
▪ Per an industry source, the NFL and ESPN are leaning against flexing out Dolphins at Steelers on ESPN on Monday night, Dec. 15. A decision must be made within 12 days of the game.
Dolphins-Bengals remains very much at risk of being flexed out of NBC’s Sunday night schedule on Dec. 21..
Sunday’s Dolphins-Saints game will be aired regionally, with Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna alum Chris Myers and Mark Schlereth on the call.
▪ There are only three more Heat games this season that won’t be televised on FanDuel Sports Sun: Jan. 6 at Minnesota (an NBC game) and two Amazon Prime exclusives: Feb. 28 vs. Houston and March 30 vs. Philadelphia.
▪ Canes fans might need to stay up late Saturday to get a bit more clarity on UM’s chances of making the College Football Playoff. The ACC and ESPN have scheduled Notre Dame’s finale at Stanford for 10:30 p.m. Saturday, much to the chagrin of many Fighting Irish fans who have never had to stay up that late for a game.
Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick call Saturday’s UM-Pittsburgh game at noon — their third Canes assignment in four weeks.
▪ CBS 4 dropped reporter/anchor Trish Christakis, who split her time between news and sports, as part of several layoffs. She said she’s not yet ready to discuss her next move.
That leaves this sports lineup among the market’s over-the-air networks with newscasts:
CBS 4: Mike Cugno, Samantha Rivera
NBC 6: Sara Cardona, Giselle Espinales
WSVN 7: Josh Moser, Mike DiPasquale, Donovan Campbell
WPLG 10: Will Manso, Clay Ferraro, Kacy Hintz
It’s fitting and admirable that the market that produced the first local female sportscaster in U.S. television history (WTVJ’s Jane Chastain) now has a half dozen women in major roles — Rivera, Cardona, Espinales, Hintz, FanDuel Sports’ Kelly Saco and Scripps/Panthers host Jessica Blaylock.