The Major League Baseball season will have an early and expanded start next year, Amazon will provide alternative commentary for its Thursday Night Football streams, and ESPN2 will air Spanish-language Monday Night Football simulcasts for the first half of the season.
MLB Gets Early Opening Day
The 2018 Major League Baseball season will begin Thursday, March 29 with all 30 teams in action, it was announced Tuesday, marking both the earliest-ever start to the season and the first time since 1968 that all teams have played on Opening Day. It will also be the first weekday start since 2012. In another scheduling change, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball will go dark the weekend before the MLB All-Star Game to ease player travel to the event. ESPN will instead get a Thursday night game to kick off the second half of the season. [MLB 9.12]
Amazon Providing Alternative TNF Commentary
Amazon will provide three alternative announcing feeds for its Thursday Night Football simulcasts, Sports Business Journal reported this week, with Spanish, Portuguese and secondary English options. The secondary English feed will accommodate casual viewers with little knowledge of the NFL game, “essentially for people who don’t know what a first down is.” [SBJ 9.11]
ESPN2 Airing Spanish-Language MNF Simulcasts
ESPN on Monday began simulcasting ESPN Deportes’ Spanish-language Monday Night Football broadcasts on ESPN2, and will do so for the first nine weeks of the season. The move was announced last week. It is not the first time that ESPN2 has simulcast a Spanish-language feed, having done so for the College Football Playoff semifinals last year. [ESPN PR 9.8]
