ESPN Strikes Deal To Televise Korean Pro Baseball

• Games Will Generally Air on ESPN2 Tuesdays through Sundays  
• KBO League Highlights to Appear on ESPN’s News and Information Programming, Including SportsCenter

ESPN today announced it has reached an agreement with Eclat Media Group regarding the KBO League – South Korea’s most popular sports league – to exclusively televise six, live regular-season games per week in the U.S. starting with Opening Day – NC Dinos vs. Samsung Lions – on Tuesday, May 5, at 1 a.m. ET / Monday, May 4, at 10 p.m. PT.

One game will air each day, Tuesday through Sunday, generally on ESPN2 and on the ESPN App. The telecasts will air Tuesdays-Fridays at 5:30 a.m. ET, Saturdays at 4 a.m. ET and Sundays at 1 a.m. ET. The Lions vs. Dinos Opening Day telecast will air on ESPN, following SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt.

As part of the agreement, ESPN will become the exclusive English-language home for KBO League live games and highlights for the 2020 season. The deal includes the postseason and the Korea Series best-of-seven championship. ESPN’s game selections will be made and announced on a week-to-week basis during the season. The telecast schedule and ESPN platform is subject to change pending future live event considerations.

Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president, programming:  “We’re thrilled to become the exclusive English-language home to the KBO League and to showcase its compelling action and high-level of competition. We have a longstanding history of documenting the game of baseball and we’re excited to deliver these live events to sports fans.”

ESPN play-by-play voices, analysts and reporters will provide commentary in English, remotely, from their home studios. ESPN baseball commentators contributing to KBO League coverage include Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez, Jessica Mendoza and Kyle Peterson. The team of Ravech and Perez will call the Lions vs. Dinos season-opener, as well as the May 6 and May 7 games.

In addition to the game telecasts, ESPN will also air highlights from KBO League games within its news and information programming, including SportsCenter. Highlights from all KBO League games will be available and are not limited to the games ESPN will televise. ESPN.com will also document the 2020 KBO League season.