ESPN has reached an agreement to broadcast live baseball from South Korea during this year’s KBO League season. ESPN will become the exclusive English-language home for live KBO games in 2020, including the postseason and best-of-seven championship series.
KBO coverage on ESPN began this morning with the Opening Day matchup between the NC Dinos and Samsung Lions. That game began on ESPN’s main channel at 1 a.m. ET.
Games will mostly be televised on ESPN2 and stream on the ESPN app. The agreement includes rights to broadcast six live regular season games per week in the U.S., with one game airing each day Tuesday through Sunday. Most games will be broadcast on weekdays at 5:30 a.m. ET, Saturdays at 4 a.m. ET and Sundays at 1 a.m ET.
As part of the deal, highlights from all KBO League games (not just those televised by ESPN) will feature on ESPN programs such as SportsCenter. Games on ESPN will feature play-by-play commentary from analysts contributing from their own homes, including Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez and Jessica Mendoza.
The Korean Baseball Organization originally planned for the KBO League to begin regular season play on March 28, but like most sports the coronavirus pandemic caused games to be suspended. Despite the late start, the league still hopes to play a full 144-game season.
In South Korea, reported positive tests of COVID-19 are down to about 10 per day. KBO League games will initially be played with no fans in ballparks. Players and team personnel will have their temperatures checked each game upon arriving at the stadium, while new rules have banned spitting and high fives. Any player who shows coronavirus symptoms will be quarantined immediately, and the KBO has said that a positive test could result in a league-wide shutdown of at least three weeks.