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.
The first Sunday afternoon broadcasts of Major League Baseball occurred in 1958 when CBS added a Sunday Game of the Week.[7][8][9] Two years later, NBC launched their own Sunday telecasts to go with their Saturday afternoon Game of the Week broadcasts.[10][11]
In 1962, CBS dropped the Sunday baseball Game of the Week[12] once the NFL season started, dropping the option clause for affiliates to carry baseball or football in place since 1957. NBC's Sunday afternoon telecasts would last through the end of the 1964 season.
Logo for ABC's Sunday afternoon telecasts from 1987.
In 1979, the start of ABC's Monday Night Baseball coverage was moved back to June, due to poor ratings during the May sweeps period. In place of April and May prime time games, ABC began airing Sunday Afternoon Baseball games in September.[13] ABC also had a clause where they could air a game the last day of the regular season if it had playoff implications, such as in 1987 in regards to the Detroit Tigers' American League East pennant chase against the Toronto Blue Jays. The team of Michaels, Palmer, and McCarver called that game in Detroit that day, in which the Tigers clinched the American League East crown. However, in 1986, ABC did do a number of early season Sunday afternoon games before they went into Monday Night Baseball. ABC's contract was further modified prior to the 1980 season, with the network airing just five Monday Night Baseball telecasts in June of that year, followed by Sunday Afternoon Baseball in August and September. ABC did Sunday afternoon games late in the season in order to fulfill the number of games in the contract and to not interfere with Monday Night Football.
In 1981, ABC planned to increase coverage to 10 Monday night games and eight Sunday afternoon games,[14][15][16][17] but the players' strike that year ended up reducing the network's schedule to three Monday night and seven Sunday afternoon telecasts.
On April 7, 1983, Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC agreed to terms of a six-year television package worth $1.2 billion. The two networks continued to alternate coverage of the League Championship Series (ABC in even numbered years and NBC in odd numbered years), World Series (ABC televised the World Series in odd numbered years and NBC in even numbered years), and All-Star Game (ABC televised the All-Star Game in even numbered years[18] and NBC in odd numbered years) through the 1989 season,[19] with each of the 26 clubs receiving $7 million per year in return. The last package gave each club $1.9 million per year. ABC contributed $575 million for regular season prime time and Sunday afternoons and NBC paid $550 million for thirty Saturday afternoon games. ABC was contracted to televise 20 prime time regular season games a year in addition to other games (the aforementioned Sunday afternoon games).
During the 1986 season, Don Drysdale did play-by-play ABC's Sunday afternoon games, which aired until July, when Monday Night Baseball began. Al Michaels did the main Sunday game usually with Jim Palmer, while Drysdale and Johnny Bench did the backup contests. No Sunday afternoon baseball games were telecast nationally in 1988 and 1989.
CBS initially did not want to start their 1990 coverage until after the network had aired that year's NBA Finals (which was the last time CBS aired the Finals before the NBA's move to NBC[20]). Therefore, only 12 regular season telecasts were scheduled.[21] The broadcasts would have been each Saturday from June 16 through August 25 and a special Sunday telecast on the weekend of August 11–12 (the New York Yankees against the Oakland Athletics in Oakland on both days). Ultimately, four more telecasts were added – two in April[22] and two on the last two Saturdays of the season.
Beginning with the 2008 season, TBS broadcast a weekly game nationally on Sunday afternoons,[23] under the title Sunday MLB on TBS. These games were not exclusive to TBS and were blacked out in local markets, to protect the stations that hold the local broadcast rights to the games. In the affected areas, simulcasts of programming from sister network HLN aired in place of the games, but recently, a message stating that the game was unavailable due to contractual requirements was aired until the game ended. Pre and postgame coverage remained available. Under the deal, TBS could show an alternate game in those markets, but the network elected not to do so.
Despite initial reports that TBS would carry games on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day, these holiday games were not part of the contract. For many years, games on these holidays were shown on ESPN, but that network discontinued them, with the occasional exception of when those holidays fell on ESPN's regular broadcast slots.
TBS released a partial schedule of its inaugural slate of Sunday games on February 27, 2008. More games would be added as the season progressed, generally two weeks before each telecast date.[24] TBS had the second pick of game after ESPN.
Consequently, due to its non-exclusivity,[25] highlights of a scheduled game that aired on MLB on TBS were not shown on the ESPN baseball highlight show Baseball Tonight, nor are live simulcasts and highlights of the said game on the MLB.TV subscription service; instead local broadcasts of the scheduled game were shown. However, highlights of an MLB on TBS game did air on the MLB on Fox weekly program This Week in Baseball (until it was canceled in 2011), as well as MLB Tonight on the MLB Network.
On September 24, 2020, it was announced that WarnerMedia had renewed its rights through 2028 (aligned with the conclusion of Fox's most recent extension). A major change in the contract is the replacement of TBS's late-season Sunday games with a new, primetime game on Tuesday nights throughout the regular season.[26][27][28]
In March 2022, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that NBC Sports was finalizing an agreement to establish a new package of Sunday afternoon games beginning in the 2022 MLB season. The 18-game package will air exclusively on the premium tier of Peacock, with the broadcasts produced by NBC Sports. It was reported that one game of the package each season would be simulcast on the NBC broadcast network, which will mark its first two national MLB broadcasts since 2000.[29] NBC formally announced the deal on April 6, and that the inaugural broadcast would be a game between the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on May 8.[30] NBC will brand these games as MLB Sunday Leadoff.
MLB Sunday Leadoff on Roku (2024–present)
On May 13, 2024, Major League Baseball announced the package would move to The Roku Channel for the 2024 season. Games will also be available blackout free to MLB.tv customers.[31]
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.
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.
The Major League Baseball Game of the Week (GOTW) is the de facto title for nationally televised coverage of regular season Major League Baseball games. The Game of the Week has traditionally aired on Saturday afternoons. When the national networks began televising national games of the week, it opened the door for a national audience to see particular clubs. While most teams were broadcast, emphasis was always on the league leaders and the major market franchises that could draw the largest audience.
Monday Night Baseball was an American live game telecast of Major League Baseball (MLB) that aired on Monday nights during the regular season.
National Basketball Association (NBA) games are televised nationally in the United States, as well as on multiple local channels and regional sports networks. Since the 2002–03 season, broadcast channel ABC, and pay TV networks ESPN and TNT have nationally televised games. Throughout most of the regular season, ESPN shows doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday nights, while TNT shows doubleheaders on Tuesday and Thursday nights. In the second half of the season, ABC shows a single game on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. Games are shown almost every night on NBA TV. There are some exceptions to this schedule, including Tip-off Week, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More games may be shown as the end of the regular season approaches, particularly games with playoff significance. During the playoffs, the first round are split between TNT, ESPN, NBA TV, and ABC on mostly weekends the second round are split between ESPN, TNT and ABC on weekends. The conference finals are split between ESPN/ABC and TNT; the two networks alternate which complete series they will carry from year to year. The entire NBA Finals is shown nationally on ABC. The NBA Finals is one of the few sporting events to be shown on a national broadcast network on a weeknight. Two new partners are set to join ESPN/ABC in televising the NBA in the 2025–26 season, with NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video replacing TNT.
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.
The National Hockey League has never fared as well on American television in comparison to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, or the National Football League, although that has begun to change, with NBC's broadcasts of the final games of the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 Stanley Cup Finals scoring some of the best ratings ever enjoyed by the sport on American television.
The history of the National Football League on television documents the long history of the National Football League on television. The NFL, along with boxing and professional wrestling, was a pioneer of sports broadcasting during a time when baseball and college football were more popular than professional football. Due to the NFL understanding television at an earlier time, they were able to surpass Major League Baseball in the 1960s as the most popular sport in the United States. Today, NFL broadcasting contracts are among the most valuable in the world.
The National Hockey League (NHL) is shown on national television in the United States and Canada. With 25 teams in the U.S. and 7 in Canada, the NHL is the only one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada that maintains separate national broadcasters in each country, each producing separate telecasts of a slate of regular season games, playoff games, and the Stanley Cup Finals.
Thursday Night Baseball is the de facto branding used for live game telecasts of Major League Baseball on Thursday nights.
In September 2000, Major League Baseball signed a six-year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox to show Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division Series games and exclusive coverage of both League Championship Series and the World Series.
MLB Tuesday is an American television presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by TNT Sports primarily for TBS. The show debuted on April 12, 2022 and features a 30-minute studio show before and after each game.
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