Major League Baseball struck a new partnership on Tuesday with YouTube incorporating live streaming rights to 13 games from the second half of the 2019 regular season.
The package that Google-owned YouTube has acquired will be available worldwide for free, with the exception of 23 territories in which MLB holds existing rights deals.
In the US, Canada and Puerto Rico the games will be exclusively distributed on MLB’s official YouTube channel and on a forthcoming channel on YouTube TV. Elsewhere, they will be distributed on YouTube. Details on the matchups will be announced at a later date.
The 13 games will include pre- and post-game shows, as well as MLB- and YouTube-themed content that will include popular creators on the video-sharing platform.
The 23 territories excluded under the deal are: Alto Adige, Australia, Austria, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Germany, Japan, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, New Zealand, Palau, Samoa and Western Samoa, Switzerland, Tahiti, Taiwan, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Earlier this month, MLB agreed a one-season extension to its rights deal with Facebook, but the social media company will have a smaller line-up of live games in 2019. The deal for MLB’s 2019 season ensures live games will be carried by Facebook for a third consecutive year.
However, only six live, regular-season games will be available globally on Facebook Watch, excluding local markets that are subject to blackout rules and select international markets.