MLB flocks to Peacock with streaming deal
- Tim Baysinger, author of Axios Pro: Media Deals
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Major League Baseball is closing in on a deal with NBCUniversal to put a slate of Sunday morning (yes, morning) games on Peacock, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Why it matters: This would be MLB's second streaming rights deal in less than a week, and would give NBCU's streaming service a third major sport to go along with the NFL and English Premier League soccer.
- Peacock lags far behind the other streaming services, with only about 9 million paid subscribers.
- Forbes previously reported that between this and MLB's Apple deal from last week, the league is bringing in $115 million a year.
Details: Peacock would get exclusive access to 18 games played on Sunday morning.
- 💠Our thought bubble: Some of those games would air as early as 11:30 a.m. ET — breakfast and baseball, for us West Coasters.
- Unlike the Apple deal, these games would be behind the paywall.
The big picture: As we said last week, sports leagues understand they need to cater to fans who only use streaming. For baseball, which has one of the oldest audiences, streaming can be a way to engage those younger viewers.
What's next: MLB is most likely done with its latest round of rights deals. That leaves the Big Ten and NBA as the sports streaming deals to watch in the next handful of years.