Major League Baseball (MLB) has been broadcast on American television since the 1950s, with initial broadcasts on the experimental station W2XBS, the predecessor of the modern WNBC in New York City. The World Series was televised on a networked basis since 1947, with regular season games broadcast nationally since 1953. Over the forthcoming years, MLB games became major attractions for American television networks, and each of the Big Three networks would air packages of baseball games at various times until the year 2000. Fox would rise to major network status, partially on its acquisition of MLB rights in 1996; Fox has been MLB's primary broadcast television partner ever since.
MLB on Fox is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports, the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), since June 1, 1996. The broadcaster has aired the World Series in 1996, 1998, and every edition since 2000, and the All-Star Game in 1997, 1999, and every year since 2001. It has also aired the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and American League Championship Series (ALCS) in alternate years from 1996 to 2000 and since 2007, with the NLCS in even years and the ALCS in odd years.
Major League Baseball on NBC was the de facto branding for weekly broadcasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on the NBC television network and its streaming service Peacock.
MLB Network Showcase is the title of a presentation of Major League Baseball on cable and satellite channel MLB Network that premiered on April 9, 2009. The network produces in-house 26 non-exclusive live games a season. Since one or both teams' local TV rights holders also carry the games, the MLB Network feed is subject to local blackouts. In that event, the cities in the blacked-out markets will instead see a simulcast of another scheduled game via one team's local TV rights holder. MLB Network Showcase typically airs one game a week.
ESPN Major League Baseball is an American presentation of live Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by ESPN. ESPN's MLB broadcasts have also aired on sister networks and platforms ESPN2, ABC and ESPN+.
MLB on TBS is an American presentation of regular season and postseason Major League Baseball (MLB) game telecasts that air on the American pay television network TBS and the streaming service Max. The games are produced by TNT Sports.
José Manuel Mota Matos is a Dominican baseball broadcaster. He currently covers the Los Angeles Dodgers on Spectrum SportsNet LA. He formerly covered the Los Angeles Angels with Bally Sports West from 2002 until his departure in 2022. He began on the Angels Spanish broadcast in 2002 and took on various roles on the English television broadcast starting in 2007. He worked alongside Amaury Pi-Gonzalez in the broadcast booth in Spanish and alongside Mark Gubicza in English. Fully bilingual, he conducts postgame interviews and often doubles as the translator for Spanish-speaking players. He served as a pre-and-postgame analyst on Angels Live and occasionally filled in as a backup play-by-play announcer for English broadcasts. He is the son of former baseball player and long-time Dodgers coach Manny Mota.
Most Major League Baseball games not broadcast exclusively by its media partners are televised by regional sports networks, which present sports programming of interest to their respective region. Most MLB broadcasters are members of chains such as NBC Sports Regional Networks and FanDuel Sports Network, although several teams are broadcast by regional networks that are independent of these chains. Some teams own partial or majority stakes in their regional broadcaster.
MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with TNT Sports, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications having minority ownership.
Major League Baseball (MLB) has rules for exclusive broadcasting, called "blackout" rules, which bar certain areas from watching certain live games. Most blackouts exist for two reasons: to set a given team's local broadcaster's exclusive broadcast territory, which induces cable systems in those areas to carry the regional sports networks that carry the games, as well as MLB's desire to drive stadium attendance.
Thursday Night Baseball is the de facto branding used for live game telecasts of Major League Baseball on Thursday nights.
Sunday Afternoon Baseball is the de facto branding used for nationally televised live game telecasts of Major League Baseball games on Sunday afternoons during the regular season.
Friday Night Baseball is a live broadcast of Major League Baseball (MLB) games on Apple TV+ that debuted during the league's 2022 season. The weekly broadcast is produced by MLB Network, featuring a doubleheader with pregame and postgame analysis. The broadcast is available in the North American market consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico as well as select overseas markets including Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand availability of the broadcast to more regions in the future.
MLB on FS1 is the de facto title for the presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports for Fox Sports 1 (FS1). FS1 airs 40 regular season MLB games, along with post-season games from the Division Series and League Championship Series and the World Baseball Classic.
MLB Sunday Leadoff is the branding used for broadcasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games that primarily are held on Sunday afternoon. It was originally produced by NBC Sports for the streaming service Peacock from 2022 to 2023, with one game each season simulcast on NBC. It was NBC Sports' first national MLB package since 2000. In 2024, MLB Sunday Leadoff is produced by MLB Local Media for The Roku Channel, and is also available blackout free on MLB.tv.
