Roku, MLB partner for Sunday morning games

Field Level Media|published: Mon 13th May, 16:17 2024

May 6, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (46) slides safely in at home to score against the New York Mets during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Roku has received the rights to 18 Major League Baseball games in the continuation of the league's "Sunday Leadoff" television package.

Beginning this Sunday with the St. Louis Cardinals' home game against the Boston Red Sox, the Roku Channel will carry one MLB game every Sunday for 18 straight weeks, many of them starting at noon or earlier local time.

Baseball fans will not need a Roku device in order to watch the games, the company said in a release. The Roku Channel app is free and available to download on Amazon Fire devices, Google TVs and Samsung TVs. The games will also be streamed on therokuchannel.com.

Additionally, those already subscribing to the league's paid package, MLB.TV, will have access to all 18 games with no blackout restrictions.

MLB created "Sunday Leadoff" in 2022 and partnered with NBC, which streamed the games on Peacock. After 2023, NBC's contract was not renewed.

Roku is also planning to produce nightly recaps and highlight packages in an "MLB Zone" section of their app. The broadcast teams will be "market-focused" and rotate week to week.

It is not Roku's first foray into live sports rights, as it became a rightsholder for the Formula E series of electric motorsports racing last year.

The full schedule is as follows (all times ET):

May 19: Boston at St. Louis, 1:05 p.m.

May 26: Toronto at Detroit, 11:35 a.m.

June 2: Minnesota at Houston, 1:05 p.m.

June 9: San Francisco at Texas, 1:05 p.m.

June 16: St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 1:05 p.m.

June 23: Arizona at Philadelphia, 11:35 a.m.

June 30: Pittsburgh at Atlanta, 11:35 a.m.

July 7: Arizona at San Diego, 4:10 p.m.

July 14: New York Yankees at Baltimore, 11:35 a.m.

July 21: Milwaukee at Minnesota, 1:05 p.m.