Major League Baseball and Google-owned YouTube announced a new deal Tuesday to broadcast 13 games exclusively on the streaming platform this season. The matchups have not been announced, but the games will be available free on YouTube in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico during the second half of the season. (The games will be available non-exclusively to an international audience.)
The games will also be broadcast on a new channel on YouTube TV, the tech company’s cable bundle, which charges $50 per month.
MLB Network will produce the broadcasts, including pre- and post-game shows. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This is not YouTube’s first foray into sports. YouTube TV signed a deal last year to carry games for Los Angeles Football Club and the Seattle Sounders of the Major League Soccer. The NBA also broadcasts games in Africa on YouTube.
“It’s incredible to team up with Major League Baseball for this first-of-its-kind deal together to provide both die-hard baseball fans and our YouTube community with live games exclusively on YouTube and YouTube TV,” said Timothy Katz, head of sports and news partnerships at YouTube. “With Major League Baseball’s expanding international fan base, we are confident YouTube’s global audience will bring fans around the world together in one place to watch the games and teams they love.”
Last year, Facebook aired 25 Major League Baseball games exclusively, but this year is showing only six. Other tech companies continue to experiment with live sports. Amazon broadcasts “Thursday Night Football,” but not exclusively as the games also air on Fox. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
“YouTube is an enormously popular video platform with impressive global reach and has served as a great environment for baseball fans to consume the game they love,” said Chris Tully, MLB executive vice president, global media. “With the media consumption habits of our fans continuing to evolve, MLB is committed both to expanding our roster of national broadcast platforms and to presenting live games in new ways to our fans.”
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