Red Sox First MLB Team With In-Market Streaming Service

The Boston Red Sox may start a trend as the first MLB team to offer in-market games through a streaming service.

The team’s longtime broadcaster NESN is launching streaming platform NESN 360, which will show Red Sox and Boston Bruins games, allowing fans to forgo a cable subscription.

• The service will cost $29.99 per month.
• It will include live games and certain on-demand games, as well as content unique to the service.
• Fans who pay for an annual subscription of $329.99 will also receive eight tickets to a 2022 Red Sox game.

Regional Streaming Network

MLB has long been tied to regional sports networks but has sought relationships with streaming services as more and more people move away from cable bundles. 

This year, it began a seven-year deal worth $85 million annually with Apple TV+ for Friday night games, as well as a $30 million per-year deal with Peacock for Sunday morning matchups.

“You’re going to have to have an over-the-top strategy for fans to watch beyond just MLB.tv,” Jon Cohen, Frequency’s senior vice president of business development and distribution, told Front Office Sports. “That’s why getting revenue deals done with Apple and with NBC for Peacock is important. You start building up audiences on those platforms and training them to watch there.

“Unless you start getting it into the market, you don’t allow others to build the audience and the acumen.”