Major League Baseball has renewed its deal with YouTube, giving it yet another streaming partner. Plus: the FOX FIFA World Cup schedule largely avoids conflicts with football season, FOX has named Joe Davis its new MLB voice, and more.
MLB renews with YouTube in yet another streaming deal
Major League Baseball, which this season has added two new streaming partners in Peacock and Apple TV+, announced Thursday that it has renewed its media rights deal with YouTube. For the fourth-straight season, YouTube will carry a package of exclusive package of games across its various platforms, including YouTube TV. This year’s 15-game schedule begins with Nationals-Rockies on May 5.
With the YouTube renewal, there will be in the neighborhood of 80+ Major League Baseball games exclusive to a streaming platform this season. Apple TV+ is expected to carry around 50 games and Peacock will air 18. That compares just under 100 games on linear television between FS1 (40), TBS (~26) and ESPN (~30).
FOX FIFA World Cup schedule largely avoids football conflicts
Fox Sports announced its 2022 FIFA World Cup schedule earlier this week with the FOX broadcast network scheduled to carry 35 of the 64 total match windows. As the World Cup is taking place during NFL season, FOX is set to air only one Sunday window — the December 18 World Cup final at 10 AM ET. The network will also skip the opening Saturday of the tournament, which coincides with the Ohio State-Michigan college football game.
As one would expect, FOX is set to carry every United States group stage match — the November 21 opener against an as-yet-unknown opponent, a Black Friday matchup against England, and a November 29 match against Iran, all at 2 PM ET.
The network also has a Thanksgiving doubleheader of Portugal-Ghana (11 AM) and Brazil-Serbia (2 PM), almost certainly leading to a Cowboys NFL game.
Joe Davis officially gets FOX MLB gig
FOX Sports officially announced last week that Joe Davis will replace Joe Buck as the voice of its Major League Baseball coverage, including the World Series. The move had been anticipated from the moment Buck left FOX for ESPN. Davis is set to debut in his new role when FOX begins its run of over-the-air windows on May 28.
Davis previously called Game 7 of the NLCS for FOX two years ago when Buck was on NFL duty.
The rest of the FOX MLB line-up remains unchanged from previous season with John Smoltz returning as lead analyst and Adam Amin, Eric Karros and A.J. Pierzynski forming the secondary broadcast team.
Plus: F1 media rights, WarnerMedia merger, USFL broadcasters
Formula 1 media rights have hit the open market and the series is seeking as much as $75 million per year, a dramatic increase over the $5 million/year ESPN is currently paying, Sports Business Journal reported Monday. Per the report, ESPN is the favorite to hold onto the rights, but former rights partner NBC is said to be interested and F1 views Fox Sports as an “option.” … The merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery officially closed last weekend, putting the Turner Sports networks under new management for the second time in a half-decade. … Fox Sports has named Curt Menefee and Joel Klatt its lead USFL broadcast team, with the duo set to call Saturday’s series debut. Kevin Kugler and Mark Sanchez will serve as the secondary team. NBC has named Jac Collinsworth and Paul Bermeister its play-by-play voices and former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and NFL Network’s Michael Robinson its analysts. On the sidelines, FOX will go with Brock Huard and NBC has tapped Zora Stephenson and Corey Robinson.
