MLB inks deal with Roku to stream Sunday games

Major League Baseball announced Monday that it has agreed to an exclusive, multiyear contract with the streaming company Roku, which will air one game each Sunday this season from now until the middle of September. Terms were not disclosed.

Roku’s package, branded as “Sunday Leadoff,” consists of 18 games starting with this coming Sunday’s 1:05 p.m. ET contest between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox and lasting through Sept. 15. With the exception of two West Coast start times, Roku games will be the first ones taking place in varying exclusive windows. Twenty-four teams are part of the package, including the New York Yankees (July 14 against the Baltimore Orioles) and Los Angeles Dodgers (Sept. 1 against the Arizona Diamondbacks).

Games on Roku can be watched free through the app, on Roku devices or via Amazon Fire, Samsung and Google TVs, among other outlets. Those with MLB.tv subscriptions can watch the games blackout-free.

MLB will produce the broadcasts and said in its news release that it plans to use “market-focused” broadcasters for the games. The goal, a source with knowledge of the deal said, is to use either local broadcast crews or MLB Network talent with ties to the region.

Roku has launched an MLB Zone channel that will act as a “one-stop destination for fans to browse, discover and stream everything MLB,” according to MLB’s release. It said the Roku Channel reached an estimated 120 million people in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The deal with Roku, which comes two years after select Friday matchups began appearing on Apple TV, is the latest MLB effort to make games available through streaming devices at a time when the linear-cable model is quickly deteriorating. Roku’s deal essentially replaces one previously held with Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.

Diamond Sports Group, which originally held the local rights for 14 MLB teams, has spent the past 14 months in bankruptcy court and recently failed to agree on a new deal with one of its three major distributors, Comcast. That development left fans around the country without access to their local teams and might significantly impact Diamond’s ability to emerge from bankruptcy.

Team owners blamed the uncertainty of their regional sports contracts for limiting their spending this offseason, a circumstance that has created even more tension with the MLB Players Association midway through the current collective bargaining agreement.