John Kosner Spoke with Richard Deitsch of The New York Times About Why The World Series Could Move to Streaming

Original Article: The Athletic, by Richard Deitsch, November 20th, 2025

If you watched the thrilling seven-game World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays — the combined North American audience for Game 7 was an incredible 38.2 million viewers, so many of you indeed did — you undoubtedly felt that you had been part of a communal event. The edge-of-your-seat series showcased the best of baseball — and Game 7 in particular was an event that casual sports fans were not going to miss.

There’s that word again: “Event.” It’s a word that always comes up with Netflix, which loves the phrase “eventize” as much as political reporters love writing about political reporters.

Netflix, among other things, sells you the idea that its programming is impossible for you to ignore. As Puck’s Julia Alexander wisely noted, Netflix’s next evolution will be “dictated by maintaining engagement and attention,” and the best content play in today’s attention economy is sports.

That’s why I was particularly interested in what The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand first reported on months ago and MLB made official on Wednesday when it announced its new TV deals with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix. As part of MLB’s new short-term future — the three-year agreements were a result of ESPN opting out of the final three seasons of its contract in February — Netflix’s partnership with MLB now expands from original programming to live baseball event coverage for the first time.

The streaming giant will open the MLB season the next three years with a singular game on Opening Night.  That begins next March 25 when Netflix airs the Yankees-Giants in prime time.

Netflix also acquired the rights to the Home Run Derby, which averaged 5.230 million viewers on ESPN this year, while the StatCast Edition on ESPN2 added 499,000 viewers.

They also get the rights to the “Field of Dreams” game on August 13 from Dyersville, Iowa. That game will feature the Twins and Phillies and is the first time MLB has returned to Iowa in four years.

This is in addition to what was previously announced: Netflix nabbing 47 games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic to its audience in Japan. Netflix Chief Content officer Bela Bajaria said her company was “seizing that moment by bringing massive cultural spectacles — from Opening Night to the Home Run Derby — directly to our members.”

It’s another big foray for Netflix with a major sport. (Marchand reported that Netflix will dole out $50 million per season.) Next month, you’ll see the streamer air the NFL on Christmas Day for the second straight year: Cowboys-Commanders (1:00 p.m. ET) and Lions-Vikings (4:30 p.m. ET), as part of its current rights deal with the NFL. These games will easily cross 20 million viewers.

“For Netflix, we see this MLB deal as another step leaning into the importance of sports and live events to drive incremental monetization of its subscriber base,” Moffett Nathanson senior research analyst Robert Fishman said.

On the subject of Netflix’s grand ambitions, MoffettNathanson, which provides trends in media, communications and technology to institutional investors, has always had a guiding principle when it comes to the company:

Watch what Netflix does and not what the company says.

So what this reveals once again — at least from my perspective — is that Netflix is prepping for what looks to be a deeper investment in MLB when the World Series and other rights become available at the end of this current deal.

John Kosner, a former top ESPN digital executive who is now the president of Kosner Media, told me earlier this year that he believes the World Series could be the carrot that brings in a Netflix or YouTube as a major MLB TV rights player. The idea would be that if MLB wants a partner that can serve as a tentpole for all of its inventory, a streamer is a logical way to go. With revenue and reach as the twin goals of sports leagues, the circulation of the biggest streamers, such as Netflix and Amazon, will be broader than the broadcast networks in the future.

“What you really want is to deliver much more value in the regular season than you’re able to at the moment,” Kosner said. “So, in order for the World Series to make sense on streaming, one of the key attributes of a partner would have to be a really strong promotional platform during the regular season to build awareness that’s where the World Series is.”

There was a time when analysts believed sports fans might push back on big events moving from linear television to streaming, but that grumbling barely exists today. Yes, fans should be upset by how much we have to pay for multiple streaming services, but nobody blinks these days on the idea of a streaming service airing live sports. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Streaming reached a historic milestone in May, as its share of total television usage outpaced the combined share of broadcast and cable for the first time, according to Nielsen. Then, in June, broadcast dipped below 20 percent of TV viewership for the first time — less than YouTube and Netflix’s combined viewership.

The game inventory Netflix has for its MLB deal is tiny compared to NBC, ESPN, Fox and TBS. However, don’t think about this as raw inventory, but rather what MLB “events” Netflix will air.

They all have national meaning during a regular season where most games only mean something regionally.  Opening Day and the Home Run Derby always bring in viewership. The White Sox-Yankees game from Iowa in 2021 drew 5.9 million viewers, MLB’s most-watched regular season game on any network in 16 years.

I expect Netflix to make a big content marketing splash in MLB next season, whether it is with the shoulder programming around these events or simply the promotional might they bring to the table. But the easiest prediction I can make is the following: This won’t be Netflix’s last contract with MLB.