Netflix’s forays into live sports have already been successful with the NFL and WWE. The streamer is hoping for another home run as its partnership with Major League Baseball begins Wednesday night with the opening night game between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants.
The opener is part of a three-event package for Netflix that also includes the Home Run Derby and Field of Dreams game between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 13.
Netflix’s progression into carrying baseball games is similar to how it ended up carrying the NFL — through successful documentaries that showed audience interest.
MLB also had an inventory of games and events it was looking to sell after ESPN opted out of its rights deal last February.
Besides Netflix getting three marquee events, NBC/Peacock is the new home of “Sunday Night Baseball” and the Wild Card Series.
Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, knew there was speculation it would carry the Home Run Derby, but one event for the season wasn’t feasible.
“This is in with our event strategy. On opening night, there’s only one game, and it’s on Netflix. And then doing the Home Run Derby and Field of Dreams, we can capitalize on the renewed fandom and energy around baseball,” he said.
Netflix — which is paying an average of $50 million per season for three years — also has the worldwide rights to the three MLB events, as it does for the NFL.
Netflix streamed all 47 games of the World Baseball Classic live and on demand in Japan. It also has the U.S. rights to the 2027 and ’31 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
MLB had an opening-night single game on Sunday for many years when the season began on Monday. That has changed in recent years, with the season now starting on Thursday.
“All of the events feel unique, and it’s our job to elevate those elements to make them even brighter. I think when you do that event approach, our experience at least has been you’re pulling in all the existing fans, but really you end up recruiting a lot of people that wouldn’t normally or wouldn’t have otherwise engaged or watched it,” Riegg said. “I think that’s always a big win for the league, and it’s certainly a big win for us.”
MLB Network will produce the game with Matt Vasgersian on play-by-play, CC Sabathia and Hunter Pence as the analysts, and Lauren Shehadi as a reporter.
Elle Duncan, who joined Netflix from ESPN in December, will host pregame and postgame coverage. She will be joined by Giants legend and seven-time NL MVP Barry Bonds, three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols, and Anthony Rizzo.
The same crews are also expected to do the Home Run Derby and Field of Dreams game.
“I think what folks have seen us accomplish on the platform, and also knowing we’re only doing a couple of things over the year. I think it allows greater flexibility for some of the talent we’re approaching, so they don’t have to lock themselves into a really long schedule or a high volume of commitment. I do think we’ve been able to have conversations with some talent that otherwise wouldn’t either be interested or available to do it,” Riegg said.
The game will feature Yankees slugger and Northern California native Aaron Judge, who was recruited by the Giants as a free agent in 2022 before signing a nine-year, $360 million contract to stay with the Yankees.
It will also be the debut of San Francisco manager Tony Vitello, who makes the jump to the majors from the University of Tennessee, where he led the Volunteers to. a College World Series title in 2024.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Former San Francisco Giants manager Roger Craig is shown on the video board as the team honors former members who died before a baseball game between the Giants and the San Diego Padres in San Francisco, Friday, April 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg,File)
LONDON (AP) — Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire early Monday in London in what British police are investigating as an antisemitic hate crime. Detectives are working to determine whether a claim of responsibility from a group with alleged links to Iran is authentic.
Though it has not been classified as a terrorist incident, counterterror officers have been put in charge of the investigation. No one was injured in the nighttime attack, which shattered windows in nearby homes and left the vehicles charred shells.
“We are pursuing all lines of inquiry, including an online claim of responsibility by an Islamist group who have claimed other attacks across Europe and have potential Iranian state links,” said Mark Rowley, chief of London's Metropolitan Police.
Religious and political leaders condemned what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a “horrific" attack.
“Antisemitism has no place in our society and it’s really important that we all stand together at a moment like this,” said Starmer, who met Jewish community leaders at 10 Downing St. on Monday to discuss the response to the attack.
Officers were called to Golders Green, a north London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, after receiving reports of a fire, the Metropolitan Police force said. Four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a volunteer organization that provides emergency medical response, were damaged, according to the London Fire Brigade.
Oxygen cylinders on the vehicles exploded, breaking windows in an adjacent apartment block. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.
What appeared to be footage from a security camera showed three figures in black wearing hoods carrying a canister toward one of the ambulance before flames erupted around the vehicle. Police said they are looking for three suspects but no arrests have been made yet.
A video posted on Telegram, allegedly by an Islamist group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, showed a map of the location where the ambulances were kept and footage of them on fire. A group of the same name, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, previously claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Israel’s government has called it a recently founded group with suspected links to pro-Iran networks.
“The rapid growth in recent years of Iranian state threats is grave,” Rowley told the annual dinner of the Community Security Trust, which works to provide safety for the Jewish community organization. But he said “it is too early for me to attribute last night’s attack in Golders Green to the Iranian state.”
The attack spread fear and alarm through Britain’s approximately 300,000-strong Jewish community, which feels increasingly vulnerable.
Mark Reisner, who lives in the neighborhood, heard loud explosions and arrived at the scene “just as the third ambulance was blowing up,” he told Sky News.
“A very loud explosion, you sort of felt it go through your guts,” he said, adding, “it's just left us all reeling with confusion and shock.”
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust, which works to protect the Jewish community. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.
Last week two men in London were charged with carrying out “hostile” surveillance last year of the U.K.’s Jewish community on behalf of Iran.
Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said the force would increase security for Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers ahead of Passover next month,
Some members of the community criticize Starmer's Labour Party government for failing to prevent pro-Palestinian demonstrations from tipping into anti-Jewish speech and acts.
Peter Zinkin, a Conservative politician who represents Golders Green on the local council, said the community felt “distress and anger.”
“Burning ambulances in the middle of the night is a disgrace,” he said. “And you have to ask yourself, why did it happen? And the reason I’m afraid that it happened is that the government and the media, particularly certain parts of the media, have validated antisemitism on a countrywide scale.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the head of the Anglican Church, said “such acts of violence, hatred and intimidation have no place in our society.”
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called it a “sickening assault.”
“At a time when Jewish communities around the world are facing a growing pattern of these violent attacks, we will meet this moment with shared resolve and stand together against hatred and intimidation,” he wrote on X.
Associated Press writers Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Forensics get ready to investigate the area in Goldedr Green in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
View at burnt Ambulances in a car park at Golders Green in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Burnt cars seen in Golders Green, London, England, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London. (Jonathan Brady/PA Wire/PA via AP)
Firefighters respond to a fire in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
A firefighter and a police officer look at a burnt Ambulance in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
A burnt car is seen in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
An officer from an emergency response unit watches a firefighter response team in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to the Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
A burnt car is seen in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Firefighters and police officers respond to a fire in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Firefighters respond to a fire in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026, after a suspected arson attack on multiple vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Firefighters respond to a fire in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
A police officer guards a road in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Firefighters respond to a fire in Golders Green, London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Police blocks a road in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Police blocks a road in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
