Roku, the streaming TV service, has become the exclusive US (and worldwide) home for 18 Sunday Leadoff live games from Major League Baseball this season.
Through a multi-year tie-up beginning on May 19, The Roku Channel will offer the opening Sunday MLB game for free each week and launch an MLB Zone. That site will include “nightly recaps, highlights, a fully programmed MLB Fast channel, and more.”
The platform will provide coverage of the first game on most Sundays throughout the remainder of the 2024 MLB campaign - between May 19 and September 15.
These games come from a package previously held by the Peacock streaming service. It was reported in mid-April that the Peacock deal was being ended by MLB, and that one platform (now unveiled as Roku) was closing in on a deal.
Peacock, owned by Comcast and NBCUniversal, has held these rights since before the 2022 campaign.
The Sunday game will see the St. Louis Cardinals host the Boston Red Sox, with Sunday Leadoff telecasts to be produced by Roku and MLB collaboratively.
The Roku Channel is available for free via Roku devices or TVs, or through the Roku app on iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire TVs, Samsung TVs, and Google TVs.
Noah Garden, the MLB’s deputy commissioner for business and media, said: “Since Roku serves as an entertainment gateway for millions, this partnership offers a valuable new promotional and distribution platform for MLB games and content.”
Aside from the range of local networks and broadcasters, MLB games in the US are covered by the Fox, TNT Sports, and ESPN networks, as well as Apple TV+, through 2028.
These deals are understood to be worth a combined total of around $1.8 billion annually.
In late March, it was confirmed that MLB would be producing and distributing games at a local level featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres, this season.
The league has launched a new channel finder for fans of the three MLB teams to help viewers locate where to watch matches, depending on the video distributor they use - such as DirecTV, Comcast, Cox, Charter, and Fubo.
Roku, meanwhile, was recently brought on board as a partner of NBCUniversal and its upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics coverage.
Roku will host an Olympics-centric content page called NBC Olympic Zone which will house NBC Olympic content from across the games.
This will include pre-Olympics coverage, highlights, a live medal counter, schedules, and athlete profiles.
