Major League Baseball will allow teams to sell their digital streaming rights in local markets ahead of the 2020 season. The league previously controlled the streaming rights for all 30 MLB clubs.
Teams that have current broadcasting deals with regional sports networks will need to honor those contracts before auctioning off livestreaming rights, according to Sports Business Journal. “The biggest single change was the return of certain in-market digital rights—the rights that have essentially become substitutional with broadcast rights—those rights will return to the clubs,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, according to Yahoo Sports.
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The rule change could lead to many teams signing deals with tech companies to livestream games. In recent years, MLB has signed deals with Facebook and YouTube to stream regular season games exclusively on those digital platforms.
Amazon purchased 15 percent of the YES Network this past August in a deal that saw the New York Yankees regain majority ownership of the regional sports network. Given Amazon’s close ties to the Yankees, the tech giant might eventually be a logical fit for the team’s in-market digital rights.
