MLB Strikes Five-Year Broadcast Deal with the BBC

Major League Baseball is deepening its connections across the pond.

The league inked a five-year broadcast deal with the BBC which will include regular-season games played on both continents. The arrangement bolsters a growing relationship between MLB and the U.K.

• BBC Sport will live-broadcast Saturday’s tilt between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, as well as games played in London in future seasons.
• The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will face off for a regular-season series in June 2023 at London Stadium, home to the Premier League’s West Ham United.
• MLB will play games there in 2024 and 2026, as well.

BBC Sport showed the first London Series in 2019, also between the Yankees and Red Sox. A planned series in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic.

Big Name Broadcast

Saturday’s BBC broadcast will include retired Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, Baltimore Orioles and Apple TV+ MLB broadcaster Melanie Newman, and The Maccabees’ guitarist Felix White, who co-hosts a cricket podcast on BBC Sounds.

The deal could come just in time for U.K. residents to witness MLB history: Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is two home runs from breaking Roger Maris’ American League regular-season record of 61, set 61 years ago in 1961.