As MLB Season Begins, Radio Remains Dependable Choice For Game-Day Coverage.

Amid many changes in TV’s coverage of Major League Baseball this season — including Netflix’s first-ever game broadcast of today’s season opener (March 25) between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants, and the return of MLB games to NBC-TV — radio’s coverage is, comparatively speaking, steady as she goes.

Yankees and Giants fans will find their usual local radio play-by-play of today’s game on either Audacy sports WFAN-AM-FM (660/101.9) New York or Cumulus Media sports KNBR-AM-FM (680/104.5) San Francisco, where their teams’ games have aired since 2014 and 1979, respectively. SiriusXM will also have play-by-play coverage of the game on MLB Network Radio, as it will for all regularly scheduled games all season long.

While ESPN Radio will not cover the season opener, it will continue as the national audio home of Major League Baseball via ESPN’s extended agreement with MLB last October. ESPN Radio will carry the World Series, full postseason, MLB All-Star Game, T-Mobile Home Run Derby, Sunday Night Baseball and other weekly games.

Viewers of local MLB team coverage may experience more confusion this season due to the coming shutdown of Main Street Sports Group, which lost the broadcasting rights to nine MLB teams, causing those teams to create new viewing options.

Meanwhile, national TV viewing of MLB games has become more fragmented, with a greater number of choices for viewers this season. ESPN will carry 30 regular-season games, while Apple TV’s “Friday Night Baseball” will feature 28 contests. Fox TV will continue its Saturday night games, with weekly games also airing on NBC-TV and Peacock, and coverage of all regular season games on MLB.TV. Netflix also joins the party with three games, including the Yankees-Giants season opener.

For advertisers, though, radio’s MLB coverage may have the edge over TV, according to a recent Katz Radio Group study showing MLB radio listeners more likely to be “big fans”: 74% describe themselves that way vs. 63% of MLB fans overall. Additionally, Scarborough research shows 85% of adults 18+ interested in MLB listen to radio weekly, while one in five MLB-interested adults tune in to MLB play-by-play on radio, with that figure rising to more than one in four among those who are “very interested” in the sport.