Netflix Takes Another Swing At MLB With Home Run Derby Broadcast

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 5: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning against the Athletics at Citizens Bank Park on May 5, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

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In November 2025, less than a year after ESPN had opted out early from a longstanding broadcast relationship, Major League Baseball announced a $50 million, three-year pact with Netflix.

The streaming giant had acquired exclusive rights to several MLB events throughout the year and touted the partnership as a chance to bring baseball’s “cultural spectacles” to the world.

But the debut of Netflix’s “eventized” version of America’s pastime was received with some mixed reviews.

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Strike One: Opening Night

For “Netflix Opening Night,” a game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees scheduled for the evening before every other team began its own season, audiences were treated with some unqualified crowd pleasers, like an elaborate pregame drone show and insight from legendary slugger and longtime media recluse Barry Bonds.

But the presentation also endured some criticism, particularly around aspects of the broadcast that deviated from tradition. A minimalist score bug that frequently vanished from the screen seemed to irk the majority on social media. And an in-game dugout interview between reporter Lauren Shehadi and Giants manager Tony Vitello took place while the first-ever automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge occurred off camera, forcing an awkward callback by the play-by-play booth and generating outrage on social media.

“There’s always going to be moments in the broadcast where the timing is not absolutely perfect, especially with a live sport,” Shehadi told Forbes as she prepared for the derby broadcast in Philadelphia on Sunday. “There was no other way to broadcast that interview. It was a first-time manager, it was his first game managing, so it was an important interview. It wasn’t just a throwaway interview.”

Matt Vasgersian, who acknowledged the unfortunate timing of that interview during the Opening Night broadcast as its play-by-play announcer and will be playing that role again for the derby, revealed that a technical issue contributed to the mishap.

“The outcry would not have been nearly what it was, had the element fired on the telecast properly,” he told Forbes in Philadelphia. “She could have continued with the interview, or at least paused. And the element would have fired on the telecast and explained what just happened. She could have then, you know, kind of buttoned it up and then continued with her interview, but the element never showed up… Guys in the truck, everybody was very frustrated with the tech.”

But perhaps the biggest criticism that the Netflix production team has taken to heart was the pushback on the numerous commercial tie-ins for other Netflix shows, which anchor Elle Duncan said will be toned down, though not eliminated.

“We heard the feedback from fans (about) trying to wedge promos in where they didn't necessarily belong or it wasn't a natural segue or fit,” Duncan said, highlighting the issue as the primary issue the broadcaster wants to fix. “And so we're a little bit more strategic with how we're promoting and what we're promoting for sure.”

The Opening Night broadcast averaged 3 million viewers, the highest overall primetime Opening Day viewership and the largest primetime 18-to-34-year-old audience since 2017, and it featured a campaign that generated 200 million social impressions, per Netflix citing Nielsen data.

Ultimately, the streaming disruptor can point to those numbers as a positive debut for its take on baseball events, while it has acknowledged that it might have ventured into some ill-advised experiments.

“Maybe with Opening Night, we were across that line a little bit too much,” Netflix head of sports Gabe Spitzer told the Marchand Sports Media Podcast in May. “Maybe there were a few too many Netflix promos. But at the same time, I think we also listen to what the fans say. We do a ton of surveys, you know, before and after, and what that sentiment was, and I think overall it was incredibly positive.”

Teeing Off With The Home Run Derby

Though Opening Night might have included some high-profile miscues, Netflix will have plenty of chances to iterate throughout the life of its ongoing contract with MLB. And with a baked-in reach of some 325 million accounts around the world, the broadcast team continues to tout the ability to reach new audiences.

And as baseball’s premier non-game special event, the Home Run Derby naturally lends itself to the Netflix approach.

“It’s already a spectacle and Netflix is leaning in,” Duncan said. “This is being treated as we specifically wanted the derby because we wanted the spectacle of it all, and I can tell you even from just the open, it's like a total spectacle.”

While local fans of the Yankees or Giants might have entered the season with some resentment over their favorite teams playing behind a paywall, the Home Run Derby is already designed as a one-off special event with no particular tie to a traditional broadcaster. In general, fans seem to embrace ongoing changes to it, like the reversion back to a swing count rather than a timer for contestants this year. And natural downtime between rounds lends itself to the kind of on-site interviews and banter that Netflix attempted to wedge into its previous broadcast.

The upcoming derby broadcast will also feature insight from perhaps the two most accomplished sluggers to ever analyze the event in real time, as both Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols will be alongside Duncan for the broadcast.

Ultimately, Netflix’s MLB broadcasting talent defended the platform’s Opening Night presentation while acknowledging that there will always be room to improve things. And the derby should serve as a better showcase for its unique approach to baseball and what might be possible in the future of the partnership.

“What Netflix brings to baseball is a different set of eyeballs, a different perspective on a team North American sport that there have been expectations for years as to how it’s supposed to look and sound,” Vasgersian said. “You don't want to punch out of that box so badly that you alienate those people that have come to expect a certain treatment, but also maybe a twist of that certain treatment is welcomed. And I think, you know, in order to grow the game, you have to always do that.”