After creating a new Friday Night Baseball package for Apple TV+, Major League Baseball has partnered with a different streamer for another exclusive offering, this time on Sunday morning.
Peacock will be the exclusive home to a new MLB game of the week on Sunday mornings. Starting May 8, the NBCUniversal streaming service will stream a baseball game (produced by NBC Sports) for 18 weeks, which will also include pregame and post-game shows on the platform. The first six games will start at 11:30 a.m. ET, and the following 12 games will begin at noon.
NBC will simulcast the first game, featuring the Boston Red Sox taking on the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park, and the other 17 games (though Sept. 4) will be exclusive to Peacock. As part of the deal, Peacock will also have exclusive rights to the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game–highlighting top minor league prospects–which will be played during All-Star Week in July at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium.
Peacock will also create a new MLB hub on its platform, with on-demand access to classic games, documentaries from the MLB Film and Video Archive and highlight packages.
The games will only be available to Peacock Premium subscribers, who pay $5 a month for the platform, as part of NBCUniversal’s strategy shift to focusing on Peacock’s paid tier instead of its free offering. The streamer now has 24.5 million monthly active accounts, and more than 9 million paid subscribers, with an additional 7 million coming from bundles with the company’s Xfinity service and other distributors such as Cox.
“Expanding Peacock’s premium live sports offering for customers remains a top priority and we are very excited to partner with MLB to bring a new, exclusive package of games to Peacock on Sunday mornings for baseball fans,” said Rick Cordella, evp and chief commercial officer, Peacock, in a statement.