Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal reached a deal with Major League Baseball to show 18 games this season on its Peacock streaming service, the latest online player to grab a slice of baseball broadcast rights.
Bloomberg reports the games will stream on Sundays, with some starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time in the U.S., MLB and Comcast’s NBC Sports division said Wednesday. The early time slot will avoid too much overlap with baseball coverage on other channels.
Major League Baseball has been divvying up rights and selling them to new streaming services to reach fans who don’t subscribe to cable TV. In March, Apple Inc. agreed to air Friday night games on its streaming service, marking the iPhone maker’s first major foray into sports broadcasting.
With the latest deal, Peacock adds baseball to a lineup of live sports that includes Premier League soccer, Sunday Night NFL games and professional golf.
The baseball games will be exclusive to Peacock and appear on its $4.99-a-month premium tier.
Comcast plans to double its content spending for Peacock this year to attract more paying subscribers to supplement its advertising revenue. The service had 24.5 million monthly active accounts in the U.S. at the end of 2021. Of that number, more than 9 million were paying subscribers.
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