After a messy carriage battle that stretched into the first few days of the 2025 MLB season and ended in a temporary, stopgap deal, YES Network and Comcast have laid down their arms.
According to a report by Eric Fisher in Front Office Sports, YES Network, the television home of the New York Yankees, and Comcast have agreed to a new distribution deal that runs “at least into 2027” and will keep the regional sports network on expanded basic cable in the New York area. Comcast, as it has done with most other regional sports networks across the country, sought to place YES Network in a higher, more expensive tier, which the network rebuffed. At the end of the day, YES Network got its wish.
When the dispute became heated last March, FCC chairman Brendan Carr stepped in, threatening the agency’s involvement at the behest of YES Network. Crucially, the lobbying came at a time of severe discontent between Comcast and the Trump administration, with the president having recently called Comcast CEO Brian Roberts a “pathetic loser.” The political pressure directly led to Comcast’s decision to reach a temporary pact with YES Network.
YES Network staying put on Comcast’s expanded basic tier is the only example of a regional sports network successfully staying on the more widely distributed offering to date. Comcast has even moved its own NBC-branded regional sports networks, like NBC Sports Bay Area, to its more expensive cable offerings.
But YES Network isn’t like every other regional sports network in the country. It airs one of the most-popular franchises in the United States in the biggest media market. Between the power of the Yankees, and the looming threat of federal involvement, it seems Comcast was willing to make an exception to its policy.
Financial terms of the deal were not reported. So even though YES Network is staying on the more accessible tier, and therefore getting paid for more subscribers, it’s possible that Comcast was able to negotiate a more favorable per-subscriber rate for allowing this exception.
Whatever the case, YES Network was able to avoid what has been inevitable for every other regional sports network doing business with Comcast. And the Yankees will remain just as accessible to New York-area fans as they have in prior years.