ROKU has agreed to a deal with Major League Baseball to become the new operator of Sunday morning baseball games.
The streaming service will be the home of the MLB Sunday Leadoff starting this weekend.
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First pitch on Roku’s inaugural Sunday will take place at 1:05 pm ET in a game between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.
Later versions of Sunday’s broadcast will have first performances at 11:35 a.m. ET.
Game broadcasts will feature Chip Caray play-by-play and Will Middlebrooks as analyst.
Alexa Datt will participate in the conference call as a sideline reporter.
Roku is a free service, but according to an MLB press release, only 120 million people have access to it.
MLB.TV subscribers will be able to watch Sunday Leadoff games without a Roku subscription.
Peacock was the former host of the Sunday Leadoff program on a two-year contract.
Previously, they paid $30 million per season for the show, but they wanted to reduce it to $10 million per season.
The money surrounding the Roku deal is not known, but it is known that Roku is in a multi-year deal.
Roku is also offering fans a new MLB zone to help them find their team’s games.
The Sunday Leadoff show with Roku is similar to Apple’s Friday Night Baseball, but with a little more exclusivity.
While Apple will have a game night with many others at the same time, there will be no other games at the same time.
Five Major MLB Rule Changes in 2024
1. The pitch clock is reduced from 20 to 18 seconds with runners on base. It will remain at 15 seconds with the bases empty.
2. When a pitching change is made, the inning clock will reset to 2:00 instead of 2:15 as happened last year.
3. Teams will only be able to visit four mounds per game in 2024, compared to five last season.
4. Fielders and fielders who block bases will be cited for obstruction by the umpires.
5. The runners’ lane from home plate to first base has been widened to include the dirt between the grass and the white line.
Adding Roku is a big deal for MLB, which has recently struggled with TV partnerships.
ESPN has the option to cancel its $550 million-a-year deal for Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and first-round playoff games.
MLB also has major deals with Fox and TNT, with Fox hosting the World Series and TNT the league’s championship series.
MLB has also hosted games on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in the past.
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