How to watch San Diego Padres games in 2026

Remember how easy it used to be to watch Padres games? All you had to do was turn on your television.

There are more options in 2026, but in the era of streaming services – more options can also mean more complications and more frustration. In case you haven’t figured out your best option for watching games in 2026, allow us to help you out.

Padres games are still available on television – and thank goodness for that. The over-the-air Padres.TV channel only shows games and is available through a handful of TV providers in the San Diego market: ATT UVerse, Cox, DirecTV, Fubo and Spectrum. If you subscribe to any of those, you can watch the Padres on TV.

There will be occasional games that pop up on other channels, including nationally televised matchups. Those include two on NBC 7: July 5 at the Dodgers and Aug. 9 against the Astros. Those will also be available on Peacock. Two others will air exclusively on Peacock: May 17 at Seattle, and September 13 in San Francisco.

But by and large, Padres games will be shown on the local Padres.TV channel.

Of course the streaming option is back – and yes, this is where things get complicated.

Padres.TV is the streaming service for fans in and around San Diego. It costs $99.99 for the season and carries everything but those national TV games. If you want access to all games across the Major Leagues, you can bundle Padres.TV and MLB.TV for $199.99.

If you don’t live in San Diego and still want to watch every Padres game, you’ll have to sign up for the MLB.TV streaming service. You might be hearing about ESPN more this year, but you don’t need to sign up for anything ESPN-related to watch games. However, if you’ve already got an ESPN account, you can add the MLB package to your subscription.

Got all that? Hope it helps because however you plan on watching, you’ll have to have it dialed in soon. Opening Day is almost here – the Padres host the Tigers on March 26.