For those who don’t have cable or satellite, viewing Major League Baseball games will become somewhat easier in August. Both ESPN and Fox, broadcasters for regular-season and postseason games, will launch new direct-to-consumer (DTC) services. Here’s a look at the two and how useful both will be.
New ESPN DTC app
Earlier this year, Disney announced that ESPN would go ahead with its own direct-to-consumer service, which will simply retain the name of the aforementioned network. This means individuals who don’t have cable, satellite, or a service like Fubo, YouTube TV, etc., can get the ESPN family of networks, plus ESPN on ABC featured events.
This new service will launch on August 21, 2025, and will be available for $29.99 USD per month.
It comes less than a year after Venu Sports, which was supposed to be a joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT/TBS), collapsed. Venu was originally supposed to be a service that packaged all three networks’ services together to offer sports fans access to NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB national telecasts offered by said entities.
Now, it is important to note that this service is marketed towards individuals who don’t have an ESPN subscription through any means. Individuals who have ESPN already can access this service through their pay-TV provider.
Fox One
News Corp. will launch its own direct-to-consumer service in August, as well. Fox One will go live on August 21, 2025, for $19.99 USD per month.
This service will bundle in Fox, available over-the-air and on providers, as well as Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Weather, and all its sports stations. This includes the BIG 10 Network (hint: college baseball), FS1, and FS2.
Like Disney, Fox was a partner in the Venu Sports operation.
How MLB fans can watch baseball with both
For at least the rest of 2025, these two services could be very useful for those who don’t have cable and want to watch nationally televised MLB contests.
ESPN Sunday Night Baseball airs once a week and will run games through the end of September. Additionally, ESPN and ABC are the exclusive homes for the 2025 Wild Card games.
Fox, meanwhile, will have the rights to the ALDS, ALCS, and World Series this year (TBS will get the NLDS and NLCS in 2025).
However, the long-term value — at least for baseball fans — is unknown.
ESPN’s deal with Major League Baseball will end at the end of this year. The network opted out of its $550MM per year deal with the league. Major League Baseball did, as well, and shared sentiments it was not happy with how the network covered the sport.
Manfred stated at the owners’ meetings earlier this summer that he wished the league weren’t in the situation of finding new rights holders and hoped that a new partner or partners would come by the end of July. That didn’t come to fruition.
ESPN was one of the networks engaged in a potential deal for the package, which included the Home Run Derby and Sunday Night Baseball slot.
Check out more of our MLB coverage.