Major League Baseball Returns to Its Broadcast Roots on NBC

'Sunday Night Baseball' on NBC/Peacock now joins NBC Sports' presentations of 'Sunday Night Football' (NFL) and 'Sunday Night Basketball' (NBA) to deliver year-round primetime sports programming on the same night each week – a broadcast network first.

March 26, 2026

The First Major League Baseball Broadcast on NBC

In 1939, NBC's experimental television station W2XBS – the precursor to WNBC-TV – aired the first-ever Major League Baseball broadcast, a Cincinnati Reds-Brooklyn Dodgers doubleheader, with Red Barber calling the action and introducing the national pastime to a new medium.

NBC's partnership with Major League Baseball goes back even earlier, in fact, to the pre-television years and the age of radio.

Over the years, NBC helped shape how fans experience the game, televising the first World Series in 1947 and the first nationally broadcast All-Star Game in 1952. NBC has aired a record 39 World Series – more than any other network.

Technological Innovations That Changed Baseball Broadcasting

In a decades-long partnership with MLB, NBC brought the baseball experience to life onscreen with new technologies, including the first World Series televised in color (1952), the iconic center-field camera view, a technical leap that changed how viewers at home understood pitching and hitting, innovative formats like the Game of the Week, and the first ballgame broadcast in stereo (the 1985 All-Star Game from the Minneapolis Metrodome).

Each year for decades, NBC innovations brought viewers closer to the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd. The network also had voices to match the moment – none more iconic than Vin Scully, who joined NBC in 1983 and became the poetic narrator of the sport's biggest stages.

Decades of Iconic MLB Programming on NBC Sports

From 1957-2000, NBC Sports was home to a wealth of baseball programming, including Game of the Week and Monday Night Baseball telecasts, more than 30 All-Star Games, and countless iconic Postseason moments. The historic partnership between NBC and Major League Baseball helped make both baseball and televised sports into iconic features of modern life.

Now, decades later, baseball returns to NBC – a full-circle moment that reunites the sport with the network that helped bring it into America's living rooms and elevate it to a national television tradition.

In 2022, MLB returned to NBCUniversal through Peacock, which began airing exclusive Sunday morning games. The move brought baseball to a new generation of fans on a new platform, once again blending tradition with technology.

NBCUniversal’s New Major League Baseball Media Rights Agreement

NBCUniversal's newest Major League baseball agreement includes exclusive packages across NBC, NBCSN, and Peacock, with primetime's Sunday Night Baseball, a Peacock-exclusive MLB Sunday Leadoff package of games (many of which will also be presented on NBCSN) followed by a Sunday afternoon whip-around show, an exclusive "Opening Day" primetime game (March 26), a new Labor Day primetime tradition, and the entire Wild Card round of the Postseason.

Sunday Night Baseball Joins NBC’s Primetime Sports Lineup

Sunday Night Baseball on NBC/Peacock now joins NBC Sports' presentations of Sunday Night Football (NFL) and Sunday Night Basketball (NBA) to deliver year-round primetime sports programming on the same night each week – a broadcast network first.

"NBC has demonstrated an outstanding combination of high production value and powerful athlete storytelling that makes MLB's return to the network an exciting opportunity to continue the sport's growth. With NBCUniversal showing great enthusiasm for baseball, we are looking forward to working together to continue the sport's momentum by telling the stories of today's talented players and capturing the excitement of our great game."

– Robert D. Manfred, Jr., Baseball Commissioner