Major League Baseball is in “advanced talks” with the streaming company Roku about hosting Sunday morning broadcasts this season, writes Andrew Marchand of the Athletic. Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal first reported two weeks ago (on X) that Roku was a potential option to carry the Sunday morning games.
MLB introduced the Sunday morning game as part of a streaming deal with Peacock in 2022. The NBC streaming service walked away from that agreement a few weeks ago. Marchand writes that Peacock wanted to renegotiate the fee to pay the league roughly $10MM per season, well below the annual $30MM price it paid for the first two years. It isn’t how clear how much the Roku talks, if agreed upon, would pay the league.
Whatever the specifics, MLB evidently finds the negotiations with Roku more promising than Peacock’s recent offers had been. If talks between MLB and Roku result in a deal, the service would have exclusive broadcasting rights to a Sunday game starting at either 11:30 am or shortly after noon EDT. No other games would start before 1:30 pm that day, so the Roku game would be the sole contest for a couple hours. Peacock had 19 such broadcasts last year ranging from late April to early September. Marchand writes that Roku may take a reduced number — at least in 2024 — because five weeks of the season have already passed.
MLB has an ongoing partnership with Apple TV+ that broadcasts two Friday night games exclusively on that streaming service. That deal reportedly pays the league $85MM per season. The Roku deal would certainly be far less lucrative, reflecting both the different time slot and increased uncertainty about the broadcasting landscape.
The Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy made the future of regional sports networks a large storyline of the offseason. While the conglomerate survived to carry local broadcasts for 12 teams in 2024, questions remain about its long-term viability.
Diamond found itself back in the news this week after failing to reach agreement on a new deal with Comcast (link via ESPN’s Alden González). The distributor pulled Diamond’s Bally Sports networks off its channels as a result, leaving its subscribers without access to in-market broadcasting in cities where Diamond has the rights. MLB’s RSN deals with Diamond prevent the league from lifting blackouts for fans affected by the Diamond/Comcast dispute. That leaves fans affected with little recourse but to hope for Comcast and Diamond to eventually work out an agreement.
My original thought was that Prime would make a good choice, but Roku works, too, since I stream through one.
I wonder if you’d have to pay for a subscription through Roku or if the “Roku channel” would remain free for those with Roku devices? if that’s the case I’d love to catch a few MLB games for free, but I highly doubt that will be the case and they will be behind a pay wall just like any other subscription based streaming service. Prime would be a good idea though, it is one of the few services that I pay for. Or what about paramount plus? They streamed NFL games, I don’t see how an issue would arise also adding MLB games.
How long is the Apple deal? The key to me is what they will offer next time. I live in NY and don’t know ANYONE who watches those games. Not one person (even those who have the service that I know don’t actually watch).
Dewwy they just need to get rid of that Apple TV channel all together., nobody is watching.
Agreed Braves. Theoretically Roku should be able to stream for free while running ads like a regular TV station would. Or, go to an L screen and run banner ads. Either way you are right it should be free. Pay wall will dissuade a large group of baseball fans from partaking.
The Issue is always money. How does any platform recoup the cost and hopefully profit from adding the games? A pay wall will dissuade many from watching, but will they be able to cover costs without one? In the Detroit market, the local channels cannot cover the cost thru advertising alone, so they no longer offer the games. Cable companies like Comcast charge everyone, whether they watch the games or not, along with ad revenue, and Bally is in bankruptcy with that model. I do hope the added viewers will be enough to entice a venue to offer free access, but I expect that is wishful thinking.
True, but Bally is in bankruptcy with that model for two reasons. First, Diamond, Bally’s parent company, took on massive amounts of debt in their acquisition of Bally. Second, Bally failed to foresee how cord cutting would cut into their business. It is interesting to note that Bally Sports Detroit is one of the profitable RSN’s and the Tigers kept getting their payments from Bally. They have also aggressively marketed their streaming platform to make up for cord cutting. I cut the cord last year and subscribe to BSD+ and am saving a ton of money over cable. Cord cutters at first were not sports fans but more and more are. And the future of televised baseball will be streaming.
We’d have to find out the expenses for Ballys vs what a streaming service has to cover, how many employees will be working etc.
suffer: So this is all good for YOU, you mean?
The Blackouts in areas where it’s not the teams direct market is bs. I live in Wilmington, NC and it’s considered the Orioles market. Spectrum cable hadn’t broadcast MASN in a decade+ and Direct TV until they came out with Direct Steam was silly priced.
What the hell is a roku
It’s a streaming device. I’ve got about 8 or 10 of them.
why would you need or want 8-10 Roku and what’s the cost.
I have Roku devices on the following: Living room TV, Master bedroom TV, Bedroom 2 TV, Bedroom 3 TV, Shop TV, Camper living room TV, Campber bedroom TV, camper basement TV. That’s 8, and I’ve got a couple of others that are not in use.
The one time cost for each Roku device ranges from about 20 bucks to about 80 bucks, depending on which model you buy. With a Roku, you can get lots of free programming. I pay for subscriptions to Fubo and FloSports, and both are streamed on my Roku devices. I also regularly stream SiriusXM and Pandora on Roku. With my Walmart Plus subscription, I also get a free subscription to Paramount Plus, which is also streamed on Roku.
Is there anything else you need to know?
Don’t forget Napster!
IM – Little known fact, 1.5M people still pay for AOL.
And thousands still use AOL Dlal-Up.
Not kidding.
It’s just not right that fans in some local markets are locked out, lack regional coverage or otherwise need subscription or other access as MLB continues to find ways to screw local fan for the sake of greed. I feel badly for those in the Diamond Sports territory who have no access to live TV of their hometown teams.
And every Friday, fans of four teams miss out on televised games if they opt not to involve themselves with Apple TV+. I missed two games of my favorite team already because of this. Two games a month on average is 12 games of lockout over 162-game, 6-month season.
I have no idea how a blackout rule could legally apply if the fans in those areas are left with no viewing options. Class action suit anyone? Time for a smart attorney to actually help others. If there are no actual options, time for Congress to get involved…
Dewey, nice thought but I don’t see how it could work. This is nothing more than capitalism and as much as we love baseball, it’s still just entertainment and not vital.
Amendment 28 – the right to watch baseball. That might contradict the 13th amendment (given that having a right to watch something means that someone else can be forced to play).
The 13th Amendment? The players are paid, and they choose to sign contracts with teams.
Congress threatens. But nothing happens. I live in NE Indiana and get blacked out of 4 teams.
Storm – Why not use a VPN?
Because baseball has encouraged RSN’s and they have exclusive rights to in market broadcasts. While tragic that Comcast and Bally have not come to an agreement that does not change the fact that MLB would be violating their contracts if they tried to broadcast in market games. FWIW, Bally and Comcast do need each other and will probably come to an agreement. And in most markets affected, you can direct stream games through Bally (for a fee of course).
if you get a VPN you can watch all MLB games and none will be black out..
Revenue is how teams can afford to pay players and cover stadium costs, neither of which are minor amounts. To call any person, or company selling their product as finding a way to screw the customer “for the sake of greed” is disingenuous. What was the previous contract amount? What is the current ask in comparison? How has subscriptions fared? Have costs gone up, and by how much? These are just some of the basic answers that are needed before determining whether “greed” belongs in the conversation. None of the articles I’ve read have provided the figures.
Before this new era of media, how were the bills paid? Because these days EVERYTHING is so money driven, it really takes away from the enjoyment of the product.
Player salaries were already skyrocketing 20-25 years ago, but these last 5-10 years, the obnoxiousness of ads, marketing and everything has become too much.
Like why do we need 12 playoff teams after a 162 game season? Shouldn’t 162 games be enough to narrow it to down to only a few teams? Oh, but wait, it’s because playoff games generate a ton of $. Well, let’s shorten the season! No, can’t do that bc that takes away some of the money.
I miss when decisions were made bc it actually made sense for baseball, not solely for pocketbooks.
Houser is very much in danger of losing his rotation spot. He’s been awful and Mets have one or more options to replace him – the first of which is Christian Scott after his Saturday debut should Mets keep him in the rotation thereafter and opt to stick with 5-man rotation.
Mets are giving Houser a long leash in rotation but he also can be moved to the bullpen, or even sent down. I think he has one minor league option remaining but I could be wrong.
6-man rotation is tool to keep the bad starter in while seeking to self-correct, and in debuting a talented prospect without displacing anyone, hoping Houser figures his woes out in the very near future.
Totally off topic dude.
Just find 1 home for all games.
MLB.TV check local listings for black outs in your area
Baseball is one of the most frustrating sports to try and watch. Blackouts and zoning is ridiculous. Make it easy to be a fan. MLB had a golden opportunity to start to re-capture all of the defunct networks that were going bankrupt and could have packaged that to fans without blackouts or other garbage.
I’d love to tune into 1 platform to watch a specific matchup on a specific day but then also on that same platform watch the Pirates because I am a sadist and still root for this team.
I used to get MLB.TV every season. But with interleague the 2 of the 4 teams now are blacked out for me. Just not worth it.
I’m a Baltimore fan living in MA and pay for MLB.tv yearly fee. However, all of the apple tv games, peacock, NESN (since I’m in Boston) games are blacked out on MLB.tv so I still can’t watch the O’s when they’re on Apple.
That’s not Sunday morning. Get some 7:30am start times.
Old – Where would they put the Roku, behind the altar?
@Fever Pitch Guy
I’m too stupid to understand what you mean. Have to use very basic grade 1 language for me.
Old – Just a joke about many baseball fans attending church on Sunday mornings :O)
Actually I recently saw somewhere that many years ago games weren’t allowed on Sundays. Not sure if it was throughout baseball or just certain cities.
True everywhere, at least everywhere where MLB was located. Most places legalized Sunday baseball by 1920, Pennsylvania didn’t legalize it until the 1930’s
mike – Interesting, thank you! I just learned 1929 is when the first official Sunday games were played in Fenway.
Interestingly, the Sox had to make one-game road trips to Detroit because they wouldn’t play on Sundays there.
The history of Mass Blue Laws is quite fascinating.
Don’t whine or cry about blackouts! All telecasts on Apple TV+ are full national and exclusive in USA/Canada. Assuming Roku telecasts will be the same way.
(Peacock telecasts were exclusive in US only.)
Those of us who don’t already have streaming subscriptions (i.e. Apple TV+, Prime, etc.) shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to see our teams in only a handful of games. As it is, we pay too much for cable/satellite only to not see the local team because of carriage disputes, or we pay too much for MLB.TV only for the local team’s games to be blacked out.
lay – Watching baseball is a privilege, not a right.
How do you think old people like me felt when they stopped broadcasting the local team’s games on the free local channels and moved everything to cable years ago. It was either pay for cable or go without ESPN and the regional networks.
I used to watch games for free on WSBK Channel 38 and then when my team migrated to NESN I was SOL.
If enough people don’t watch games on Apple TV, the contract will end. I miss my team’s games on Apple TV, but I refuse to pay for it just to watch a few Friday night games.
Problem is baseball is a local sport or a fan of the team sport. This isn’t football where a lot of other teams fans will tune in because they just like watching football.
If the audience was big enough they would have no issues selling these rights. Heck they could just show it on mlb network if the ads and what not made more than the cost of paying mlb for the rights.
These streaming services are have likely been doing these deals at a loss to try and promote their streams. Like the cost of running ads to sell subscriptions.
I have subscribed to say Apple TV in the past for just the month my team played on Friday night. Though I never turn it on to watch a different team play. I’m sure some do but it’s not a ton. The only one I haven’t done this on was the Sunday morning game. Think they would be better off doing it say Monday or Saturday night.
Baseball could fix a lot of its issues by doing full tv revenue sharing. Of course the dodgers and Yankees aren’t interested in doing that but if the small market teams start or continue to take a pay cut on their tv deals the gap in payroll from these teams could get much worse.
Didn’t you just describe MLB.TV? But that has blackouts. I live in NE Indiana and get blacked out of 4 teams. I stopped buying the MLB.TV package a few years back.
Storm – Why not switch to T-Mobile?
I switched to T-Mobile two years ago when ATT turned off my phone. I haven’t regretted it, and the FREE MLB TV subscription is a bonus.
I never minded a handful of games on streaming services like Apple+ or Peacock. I have Peacock but no longer have Apple+. Most baseball fans want to watch their local team and if my Tigers are on a service I don’t get I fire up the radio. The future of baseball, and honestly most sports outside of football is streaming. Cable is dying a slow death and the dispute between Comcast and Bally is a sign of that. Rumor is that Spectrum is planning on ditching being a cable company and focusing on being an ISP. Cable with all the carriage fees it pays isn’t profitable and Comcast has lost 6 million subscribers in the past 4 years. We will eventually get to a point that all of us will have to stream to get our home team. That transition will be bumpy and whether it is one platform for all (MLB.TV) or multiple (RSN streaming) remains to be seen. I don’t have blackout issues in Michigan but I know a lot of you out there do. And fixing the black out issue is critical going forward. Hold on to your hat.
Anyone else losing interest in baseball (and sports in general) with how it’s becoming so obvious how money driven every decision is?
Before this new era, I could at least kinda believe that the game was about the fans, but now it’s very clear that it’s about the owners, players and the media making $.
I truly don’t think these leagues make decisions that will improve the game unless it also improves their bottom line, which is a huge red flag to me. There has to be some give and take with it.
@RyanD44
It’s always been about making money. Look at all the ads on the old stadiums. Those companies paid a lot to advertise there. But now that MLB has a larger fan following, they can take more of the income from the ads AND consumers who want more of their product. With more revenue and profits, the players, owners and media can earn more money. If you don’t like the sports anymore, don’t watch or try something else. Some of the Indy leagues are fun and don’t cost an arm and a leg to watch.
For me, it’s not about the spending of the money on my end. It’s about the strategy in which they are pushing their ads and marketing. There are so many in-game ads now, everything is sponsored by XYZ, sports betting promotions galore, ads on jerseys, old stadiums like Fenway and Wrigley adding sponsors inside the stadiums, streaming services getting contracts for certain games, increased blackouts, more playoff teams, opening day games in other countries at weird times for US fans.. I could keep going.
I understand capitalism. I own a business myself, and have for 14 years. MLB used to be less aggressive with their money making attempts, but now it is obvious and obnoxious.. the problem is everything is media driven.. it’s all about viewers and clicks. Teams don’t really care if fans show up as long as they are getting their viewers on TV, because the ad revenue and sponsorships are way more valuable.
Don’t you think MLB is more aggressive because they have lost so much market to NFL? Sports media is NFL 12 months a year. Pre draft, post draft, elementary school field day commonly known as NFL combine.
Baseball is clearly more profitable than ever. You can see that with all the increasing contracts and team values. Modern day TV contracts have changed the financial landscape for sports. Advertisers know they can get the most bang for their buck by showing their content during sports.
The program is that these sports have become obsessed with advertising and maximum their profits to the point where it dilutes the actual product. I absolutely understand it’s a business, but I am losing my love for the product bc it doesn’t seem like it’s centered around the fans at all anymore. That’s pretty evident by the strike a couple years ago and the covid negotiations.
Brilliant move! MLB is really nailing this “appeal to the new generation” thing by putting games on so many different, isolated platforms. Watching one Sunday morning game per week on a Roku is definitely going to being in a new generation of fans.
A+, MLB, way to go!
Good ol Manfraud. Next thing will be that you will have to set up a team in draft kings to access mlb.tv and then have to have a bet with bet mgm on the game you are trying to watch in order to watch it.
In order for me to watch every single game this season, I would need a sub for YES, MLB.tv, Amazon, Apple TV+, and possibly Roku down the line. And then there’s the playoffs with TBS.
If you have Amazon prime you can Take MLB tv for 1 team or all 30 teams the month charge is not much. I have only been blacked out when appletv and espn games. check it out.
Just stop, we are not going to spend on another platform