Roku and MLB Team Up for Exclusive Sunday Morning Baseball
Earlier today, Roku and Major League Baseball partnered on a package for “MLB Sunday Leadoff.” This content will be streaming free on The Roku Channel starting on May 19th. These games complement the programming lineup of Roku’s ad-supported service and help Roku serve its expanding active user base. It also doesn’t hurt that Roku’s Q1 2024 revenue was so impressive that it exceeded even higher expectations: $882 million.
The President of Roku Media, Charlie Collier, spoke about the partnership and Roku’s importance in the current media climate. Roku is at the epicenter and can connect baseball fans across various existing services. As for the Roku-Major League Baseball partnership, Collier stated that it’s not just a live-streaming of games; it’s about developing a genuinely baseball-centrist space.
Counting only the U.S., Roku reaches about 120 million people, with 81.6 million active users globally. That’s a gigantic connected TV footprint, and MLB sees value in that.
MLB’s Deputy Commissioner for Business and Media, Noah Garden, sees the potential of Roku to give MLB unprecedented reach and access Roku will provide them. What’s on deck? Several mouthwatering matchups, like the St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Boston Red Sox this weekend, and the construction of a hub of MLB-themed content for baseball fans.
As for the broadcasts themselves, the commentary team will include familiar voices like Chip Caray, Will Middlebrooks, and Alexa Datt. In addition to the live games, MLB Zone on Roku will be the place to find the most updated highlights, some much-loved game replays, and other baseball-related content.
The reach of the Roku platform across different devices should allow for a great viewing experience wherever fans watch. It will serve those watching games well and provide an essential promotional platform for MLB in addition to their advertisers. When you choose to watch an MLB game, whether at your own home or even on the road, you can fire up the app and see content front-loaded to give you a taste of what’s happening across the league.
From a business perspective, the timing of this agreement benefits Roku exceptionally well. Although average revenue per user declined somewhat in 2023, Roku substantially increased the number of its active accounts in Q1 of 2024 and the overall time users spent using the platform worldwide, streaming 30.8 billion hours, which increased 23% from the year prior. Those numbers bode well for garnering eyeballs on MLB’s content.
The millions of baseball fans who will watch “MLB Sunday Leadoff” can count on MLB and Roku to deliver an experience that will mirror broadcasts familiar to those put on by MLB Network, which will be responsible for producing these telecasts.