MLB reaches deal to stream baseball to China – USA TODAY
Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY
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Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred talks to USA TODAY’s Ed Baig about a new mass market media agreement to stream MLB content in China.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
LAS VEGAS—What was the Commissioner of Major League Baseball doing at the world’s largest tech trade show?
Rob Manfred attended CES to announce a three-year strategic partnership between the league and Le Sports in China, to stream America’s National Pastime live to fans and potential fans in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
The deal marks the first mass market MLB media agreement in China. As part of the arrangement, Le Sports — a leading Internet eco-sports company in China — will hold exclusive media rights in China to broadcast 125 MLB games per season, along with Mandarin-language MLB programming.
The company will distribute games and other MLB content through its Internet platform, mobile applications, and via other devices. The live streaming lineup will consist of four high definition games per week during the regular season, adding up to 96, plus 20 postseason games, the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby, and all World Series games. Le Sports gains the rights to rebroadcast those games via video on demand and may also benefit from e-commerce opportunities to sell MLB paraphernalia.
MLB did not disclose the monetary value of the deal.
“When I became Commissioner almost a year ago now I identified a number of growth initiatives that I thought were crucial to the growth of the sport and one of them was the continued internationalization of the game,” Manfred said on stage during a Caesars Palace press event.
Le Sports plans to establish an online community for all 30 MLB clubs and become a central portal for Chinese baseball fans. And Le Sports will continue as a co-producer of MLB Perfect Pitch, a baseball reality show. The Chinese company will also broadcast MLB Beijing University Baseball League and MLB Shanghai University Baseball League opening and final games, as well as MLB Play Ball! Youth Program games.
For its part, MLB opened an office in China back in 2007 and has since established three MLB Development Centers, in Wuxi, Changzhou and Nanjing. Prospect Itchy Xu, an MLB DC student-athlete, was signed by the Baltimore Orioles this past July.
“With the multiple platforms involved in this deal, we think (Le Sports) has reach in China that will be very beneficial to the growth of baseball over time,” Manfred told USA TODAY during an interview.
Meanwhile, since the Commissioner was at CES, I asked him how the League might embrace some of the technologies being showcased here, including virtual reality. “We feel that technology is really an important part of our business generally, but also part of our outreach to youth,” he said. “Virtual reality gives fans the types of access that they want today, and we’re carefully monitoring the developments in that area.”
The National Basketball Association has already experimented with virtual courtside seating during a live NBA game. So might baseball fans get to sit in an expensive virtual front row seat at a ballpark? Manfred’s answer: “Everybody thinks that sounds like a great idea.”
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter
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