Major League Baseball (MLB) is leveraging Google Cloud technology to enhance its streaming strategy for MLB.TV and the league’s other media platforms.
With this expanded, multi-year partnership, MLB will tap into a range of Google Cloud products geared towards producing live and on-demand video workflows, like Anthos, BigQuery, Google Cloud Media APIs and others.
MLB will also pilot Google Cloud’s Media Content Delivery Network (CDN), which will provide streamed content at fast, low latency speeds to a variety of user endpoints across the world.
Google Cloud unveiled its Media CDN offering in April, touting ad integration capabilities, AI/ML analytics for interactive experiences and other features.
MLB says it’s using Google Cloud’s data expertise to gain real-time insights for improving the fan viewing experience. For instance, viewers browsing the MLB Film Room – a video library containing over 3.5 million baseball clips and highlights – will be able to easily find content they want to watch as well as obtain more personalized recommendations.
"Google Cloud has been an outstanding partner to baseball, helping us innovate platforms that provide our fans with exceptional real-time experiences, from Statcast to Film Room," stated MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred.
"With their leading expertise in everything from data analytics to machine learning, this partnership provides us with an unmatched extension of technological resources,” he added. “Now we can continue collaborating with Google Cloud as a means of further delivering unparalleled digital experiences for our fans."
The expanded partnership comes as MLB widens its streaming distribution. The league earlier this year renewed a streaming deal with YouTube for the 2022 regular season, allowing baseball fans from over 182 countries to watch the games for free.
Whereas Peacock and Apple TV+ are streaming MLB games exclusive to their respective services.
MLB.TV, the league’s proprietary streaming service, gives its subscribers access to live, out-of-market games as well as original on-demand content. MLB is currently offering a postseason package for $24.99 per month, which includes La Liga Dominicana games broadcast in Spanish.
The service is available on most major mobile and smart TV devices, as well as through Comcast’s Xfinity Flex platform and Amazon’s Prime Video Channels.