Weekly series of games begins May 19 with the Boston Red Sox at the St. Louis Cardinals
Following a string of rumors last week, Major League Baseball officially announced on Monday that the streaming service Roku has secured the exclusive rights for Major League Baseball (MLB) Sunday Leadoff games.
Roku’s schedule of games – which will stream for free on The Roku Channel – begins this Sunday, May 19 with the St. Louis Cardinals hosting the Boston Red Sox.
“With free games available to anyone, MLB games on Roku will be widely accessible to fans,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media. “Since Roku serves as an entertainment gateway for millions, this partnership offers a valuable new promotional and distribution platform for MLB games and content.”
Roku also shared plans for a new “MLB Zone” within the Roku platform e to help viewers discover live and upcoming games, nightly recaps, and highlights. There’s also plans for a MLB FAST channel.
“As television programming, live sports, and the leagues have fragmented across networks, apps, and multiple packages, Roku—home to all of them—plays an increasingly crucial role for viewers and advertisers,” Charlie Collier, President of Roku Media said in the official announcement. “With this deal, Roku delivers free, live, weekly Sunday baseball and 24/7 baseball curation, destinations, and channels across our platform. The lead-in to all of television is now the lead-off for Sunday baseball as well. It’s a terrific partnership.”
A few details on the MLB FAST channel were shared in the release, as well. The channel will stream highlights, Game of the Week replays, Minor League Baseball game replays, and other baseball content. Viewers can also find the Sunday games in the MLB Zone by heading to Sports on the Roku Home Screen menu or using Roku Search.
The Roku Channel is available to stream for free on Roku devices or TVs, TheRokuChannel.com, and through the Roku app on iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire TVs, Samsung TVs and Google TVs and other Android TV OS devices.
