Major League Baseball is nearing a deal with a platform rarely mentioned in sports television talks, Roku.
MLB is in negotiations with Roku to acquire the package of Sunday morning games that previously aired on Peacock, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Thursday. Roku is best known for its various streaming video players, but the company also has a branded streaming channel that is available to watch for free without a device.
Roku’s channel currently offers live sports through separate services — such as the CBS Sports Golazo! Network, Paramount+ and VIX — and airs studio programming like “The Rich Eisen Show,” but has little if any sports programming of its own.
Per the report, MLB Network would produce the Roku telecasts as the company has no preexisting live sports operation. That is a shift from the Peacock telecasts, which were not only produced by NBC Sports but on two occasions were simulcast on the NBC broadcast network.
Even though Comcast paid just $30 million/year for the Sunday morning rights, the company is said to have balked at the price during renewal talks. Per Marchand, Comcast wanted to cut that rights fee to as low as $10 million.
The Sunday morning package would continue to consist of games at 11:30 AM or Noon ET each week, a semi-exclusive window in which it would be the only game played until 1:30 PM.
