Amid ever-growing fragmentation across sports media, MLB and NBC Sports are attempting a rather different, holiday-themed experiment: putting all of the league’s games in one place, at least for one day.
On Sunday, NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games scheduled that day in what it’s calling “Star-Spangled Sunday.” The Peacock streaming service will offer every one of those games. The NBC broadcast network will also have two: a noon ET matchup between the Mets and Braves, and a 7 p.m. ET clash between the Padres and Dodgers, with both games leaning heavily into longstanding division rivalries.
The cable-based NBC Sports Network, meanwhile, will have three games, culminating in a 9:30 p.m. ET broadcast between the Red Sox and Angels.
NBC Sports will have full exclusivity for 12 of the 15 games that day, with local simulcasts happening with regional sports networks in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. But for the first time in league history on any network, NBC Sports will show all 15 games nationally in a single day, and it will do so without blackouts. Production will involve a mix of the network’s own personnel and local crews from the individual teams.
“The big idea is to take over the sport entirely for a day and celebrate the Fourth [of July],” NBC Sports SVP of production and coordinating producer Rob Hyland tells Front Office Sports.
