Major League Baseball’s League Championship Series proved to be a major hit for TBS and FS1 as both networks finished at the top of last week’s primetime charts.

TBS averaged 2.9 million viewers for the week of October 16 to October 22 to top all cable networks, followed by FS1, which averaged 2.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers provided by Fox News. 

Both networks were bolstered by their respective coverage of baseball's playoffs games. TBS was led by its October 20 coverage of the Philadelphia Phillies-Arizona Diamondbacks National League Championship series, which drew 5.39 million viewers, while FS1’s October 22 Texas Rangers-Houston Astros American League Championship telecast drew 4.76 million viewers.

Also: MLB Hopes Diamondbacks-Phillies Game 7 Will Spark World Series Ratings Rally

Fox News finished third with 2 million viewers, followed by ESPN with 1.8 million viewers and MSNBC with 1.2 million watchers. Hallmark Channel was sixth with 917,000 viewers, followed by HGTV (814,000 viewers), CNN (687,000), INSP (601,000) and TLC (565,000). 

Fox News finished first on the total day chart for the fifth straight week, followed by MSNBC (918,000 viewers), TBS (732,000), ESPN (666,000) and CNN (631,000).

Fox Sports and Religion of Sports will profile the memorable 2004 New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox American League Championship Series in a new sports documentary debuting October 18. 

The Game That Changed Everything: Yankees vs. Red Sox ‘04 ALCS will focus on Game 4 of the baseball series in which the Red Sox — already down 3-0 in the series — scored a come-from-behind win, which served as a prelude to the team’s historic defeat of the Yankees in the series and eventual World Series championship. 

The documentary will feature interviews with players involved in the series, including Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Mariano Rivera, Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, Dave Roberts and Orlando Cabrera. 

The Game That Changed Everything: Yankees vs. Red Sox ’04 ALCS is executive produced by Gotham Chopra, Ameeth Sankaran, Victor Buhler, Eric Shanks, Mark Silverman, Charlie Dixon and Barry Nugent.

“Fox Sports is thrilled to commemorate one of the most iconic stories in baseball as retold through varying perspectives of some of the best players and sports personalities in Major League Baseball,” Fox Sports VP of development and original programming Barry Nugent said in a statement. “As Fox is the exclusive home of the ALCS this postseason, we’re excited to present a never-before-seen interpretation of arguably one of the greatest games in ALCS history to reignite fan enthusiasm behind this iconic series.”

The live sports lineup for the penultimate weekend in September starts on the college football field with every Top 10 team in action on Saturday. 

Top-ranked Georgia will host UAB on ESPN2, second-ranked Michigan battles Rutgers on Big Ten Network, third-ranked Texas travels to Baylor on ABC, fourth-ranked Florida State takes on Clemson on ABC, and fifth-ranked USC travels to Arizona State on Fox. 

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will lead his 19th-ranked Buffaloes into Oregon to take on the 10th-ranked Ducks on ABC. The rest of the schedule featuring top-ranked teams include No. 6 Ohio State-No. 9 Notre Dame (NBC), No. 7 Penn State-Iowa (CBS) and No. 8 Washington-California (ESPN).

On the basketball court, the second round of the WNBA playoffs begins Sunday with the Connecticut Sun-New York Liberty contest on ESPN and the Dallas Wings–Las Vegas Aces games on ESPN2.

Week three of the NFL season continues on Sunday afternoon with regional action on CBS and Fox. NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast features an AFC matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders. 

On the racetrack, USA Network on Saturday will air the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race, while on Sunday, ESPN will televise the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix race, and USA Network will air the NASCAR Cup AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 contest. 

In the boxing ring, ESPN Plus on Saturday will feature a WBO heavyweight interim title fight between champion Zhilei Zhang and Joe Joyce, while DAZN offers a main event bout between junior welterweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepaeda. 

On the soccer field, Peacock, USA and NBC will combine to offer 10 English Premier League games throughout the weekend, while Apple TV and FS1 televise two Sunday MLS contests.

On the baseball diamond, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will air from Los Angeles as the Dodgers play their National League rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

Prime Video will not go ahead with a second season of its women’s baseball-themed drama series A League of Their Own due to delays caused by the ongoing writer's and actor’s strike, according to reports.

The series, an adaptation of the 1990’s movie of the same name about a professional women’s baseball league, was initially renewed for a four-episode second season this past April. Series co-creator and executive producer Abbi Jacobson recently took to social media to decry the show’s cancellation. 

“To blame this cancellation on the strike … is bulls**t and cowardly,” Jacobson said in her Instagram post, before adding “this post here is about the special show I was lucky to make with so many incredibly talented artist and actors and writers and crew.”

The series from Sony Pictures Television stars Jacobson, Chante Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, and Nick Offerman.

Along with Jacobson, Will Graham, Hailey Wierengo, Desta Tedros Reff and Jamie Babbit also served as executive producers for A League of Their Own.

FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer action and auto-racing events highlighted last week's sports ratings landscape. 

Fox’s July 26 coverage of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s draw against the Netherlands was the top viewed live sports event for the week of July 24-30 with an average of 6.43 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. Telemundo’s Spanish-language telecast of the match also made the top 10 most-watched events for the week with 1.16 million viewers.

According to Fox Sports, Fox averaged a record 4.3 million viewers for its three U.S. Women’s soccer team telecasts during the Group Stage event, up 19 percent from 2019. 

Auto racing events secured four of the top 10 positions on the live sports viewership chart, with USA Network's July 30 live race and pre-race coverage of the NASCAR Cup series Cook Out 400 playoff event finishing third and fourth for the week, while NBC’s July 29th NASCAR Xfinity Road America 180 race and ESPN’s July 30 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix pulled into sixth and ninth place, respectively. ESPN said the 1.16 million viewers for its Belgian Grand Prix telecast was the race's largest audience on record in the U.S. 

Fox Sports will use technology to bring baseball fans closer to the action during its live telecast of the 93rd Major League Baseball All-Star Game tonight (July 11) from Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.

For the first time, Fox during its  All-Star Game coverage will employ aerial drone technology to capture the action from unique angles throughout the ballpark, Fox Sports president of production and operations/executive producer Brad Zager said. “We’ll utilize the drone as players come on and off the field at the end of half innings, which is a first for us,” he said. “We’ll continue to push access and let viewers at home learn and hear from these all-star players more than they may get during the regular season.”

Also Read: Fox Sports Finds Success With a Time-Tested Playbook

Fox Sports will also look to provide a window into the player’s perspective during its telecast by placing live microphones on players, said Zager. The pregame studio booth featuring former MLB All-Stars Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter — who played in nearly 40 All-Star Games between them — will also provide analysis from a player’s point of view, he said.

“Having those guys there will allow viewers to get their perspective and offer context into what it’s like to play in an All-Star Game,” Zager said.

Overall, Zager said baseball’s new rules implemented this season, including a pitch clock to speed up the game, will not alter Fox’s production of the All-Star Game. “We think the rule changes that baseball has put in has done nothing but make this great game even better,” he said. “We look at the All-Star game as an opportunity to look at the game almost half-inning by half-inning in terms of who’s on the field and what stories we can tell.”

Fox’s 2022 MLB All-Star Game telecast averaged 7.51 million viewers, which was down 7% from the year prior. Zager believes that the league's momentum stemming from the strong play on the field and enhanced by the rule changes should bode well for All-Star game viewership.

“It’s been a great year for baseball with the changes that they’ve made, which has translated to fans being excited about watching games,” he said. “With the All-Star game you’ve got a great mix this year of established stars like [Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder] Mookie Betts as well as some of the younger guys you want to show off like [Baltimore Orioles catcher] Adley Rutschman and [Atlanta Braves outfielder] Ronald Acuna Jr. We’re looking forward to a great game.”

Play-by-play announcer Joe Davis and analyst John Smoltz will call the game for Fox. It will also air live on Fox Deportes as well as on the Fox Sports app.

The live TV sports calendar for the first weekend in June starts on the ice as TNT drops the puck on the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. 

TNT, along with TBS and truTV, will carry Game One of the Florida Panthers-Vegas Golden Knights NHL Stanley Cup series. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned networks will air every game of the NHL finals after ABC aired last year’s Colorado Avalanche-Tampa Bay Lightening Stanley Cup series.

Also: TNT Hopes Its First Stanley Cup Finals Will Maintain Hockey’s Ratings Momentum

The NBA Finals continue on ABC Sunday night as the Miami Heat look to even up its series with the Denver Nuggets after losing the first game on Thursday. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock Sunday morning will stream the St. Louis Cardinals-Pittsburgh Pirates game, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will feature long-time interleague rivals the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Week eight of the USFL Football league begins Saturday with coverage of the Houston Gamblers-Pittsburgh Maulers game on USA Network and the Philadelphia Stars-Birmingham Stallions on NBC. Sunday’s action includes Fox’s telecasts of the Memphis Showboats-New Jersey Generals and Michigan Panthers-New Orleans Breakers games. 

On the links, CBS and the Golf Channel will offer weekend coverage of the final rounds of PGA Memorial golf tournament, while on the tennis court NBC and Tennis Channel will offer live coverage of the French Open.

In the octagon, ESPN on Saturday will televise a UFC Fight Night card featuring a main event bout between flyweights Kai Kara-France and Amir Albazi.  

The Mother’s Day weekend lineup of live tv sports action begins on the pro football field as ABC airs in primetime the upstart XFL pro football league’s Championship game featuring the Arlington Renegades and the D.C. Defenders. 

The second round of the NBA Playoffs winds down as the Philadelphia 76’ers and the Boston Celtics meet Saturday on ABC in a pivotal Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. 

On the ice, ESPN on Saturday will air a Game 6 NHL Playoffs contest featuring the Dallas Stars, who will look to close out its second round series against Seattle Kraken. On Sunday ESPN will air Game 6 of the Edmonton Oilers-Vegas Golden Knights series, with the Golden Knights up three games to two.

On the racetrack, NBC on Saturday will televise the GMR Grand Prix IndyCar Series race and on Sunday will air the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Course de Monterey race. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock on Sunday morning will stream the L.A. Angels-Cleveland Guardians game, while ESPN will televise the St. Louis Cardinals-Boston Red Sox game as part of its Sunday Night Baseball telecast. 

On the links, CBS and Golf Channel will offer final round weekend coverage of the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic PGA tournament, while the CW offers live Saturday and Sunday coverage of the LIV golf tournament in Tulsa. 

Both ESPN and Showtime will feature boxing cards Saturday night, with ESPN offering the Janibek Alimkhanuly-Steven Butler WBO middleweight title fight and Showtime airing the Rolando Romero-Ismael Barroso WBA interim junior welterweight title bout. In the octagon, ABC will air a UFC heavyweight main event bout between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Jailton Almeida. 

Fox on Sunday will air final round coverage of the Professional Bowlers Association’s Players Championship. On the soccer field, USA and Peacock will air nine Premier League games throughout the weekend. 

 Amazon Prime Video will bring back its baseball-themed series A League of Their Own with a limited, four-episode second and final season, the streamer said.

The series, based on a retelling of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film of the same name, follows the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. The show’s first season took a deeper look at race and sexuality both in the league and outside of it, according to Prime Video.

The series from Sony Pictures Television stars Abbi Jacobson, Chante Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, and Nick Offerman.

Executive producers for A League of Their Own include  Jacobson, Will Graham, Hailey Wierengo, Desta Tedros Reff and Jamie Babbit.

Also Read: Content Spotlight: Content Spotlight: Chanté Adams Throws a Pitch for 'A League of Their Own' Series

“We’re deeply proud of the work that Abbi, Will, the cast and crew have done reimagining A League of Their Own, which has produced an incredibly loyal fan base as well as achieved numerous, well-deserved recognitions and accolades,“ Amazon and MGM Studios head of television Vernon Sanders said in a statement. “After hearing what Abbi, Will and the writing team have planned for the new story within this wonderful series, we are excited for our fans to see what comes next.” 

The World Baseball Classic concludes tonight with a highly-anticipated finals matchup between Team USA and Japan airing live on FS1.

Japan, which won the first two WBC titles in 2006 and 2009, will face the tournament’s defending champions in Team USA, capping off a thrilling tournament in which both teams won come-from-behind games throughout the three-week, 20-team event.

Team USA defeated Cuba to advance to the finals, but it was a late-inning, comeback win over Venezuela in the quarterfinal round that galvanized the team’s march to the finals. Japan advanced to the finals in dramatic fashion, defeating Mexico on a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth inning. 

FS1 will air the USA-Japan game live beginning at 7 p.m. (ET). 

ESPN will shine a light on the storied history of the New York Yankees baseball franchise in a new documentary series.

The eight-part documentary, The Yankees Win, will look at the most successful franchise in baseball history with 27 World Series championship wins, with a focus on the team’s 50-year run since iconic owner George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973, according to network officials.

The series will chronicle every chapter of Yankees history, told through interviews with players, managers, coaches, executives, writers, commentators, and fans, said the network. 

ESPN Films along with Major League Baseball, Words + Pictures, Hock Films, Bad Robot and Zipper Bros Films will produce The Yankees Win. J.J. Abrams, Glen Zipper, Connor Schell, Libby Geist, Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern, Nick Trotta and Sean Stuart will serve as executive producers for the documentary series. ■

YouTube TV on Tuesday pulled MLB Network from its programming lineup after failing to reach a new distribution deal, according to a notice sent to the distributor's subscribers.

Along with losing access to MLB Network on YouTube TV's basic tier, the distributor's subscribers will also lose any network-based recorded programming. Subscribers will still be able to watch live national baseball games via Fox, ESPN and TBS as part of the distributor’s $65 basic plan. 

“We have held good faith negotiations with MLB for several months to renew our deal to continue carrying their content on YouTube TV. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach a new agreement before our existing one expired,” a YouTube TV spokesperson said. “Starting today, January 31, 2023, the MLB Network will no longer be available on YouTube TV.”

The loss of MLB Network comes within weeks of the start of Major League Baseball’s spring training and less than two months before the start of its regular season. 

MLB said in a statement: “With Spring Training about to start, we regret that YouTube TV has been unwilling to negotiate a fair carriage agreement. MLB Network has offered terms consistent with what close to 300 other U.S. providers have agreed to for distribution. With the great demand and value for live baseball content, Major League Baseball’s commitment to MLB Network now and in the future is stronger than ever before, and we remain open and committed to reaching an agreement with YouTube TV as soon as possible. ■  

HBO will chronicle the life and career of baseball legend Willie Mays in a new documentary debuting November 8.

Say Hey, Willie Mays! follows the baseball Hall-of-Famer's life both on and off the field over five decades as he navigated the American sports landscape and the country’s ever-evolving cultural backdrop, according to the network.

Mays, who played for the New York/San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets over a 22 year career (1951-1973), participated in a record-tying 24 All-Star games and hit 660 career home runs -- the sixth most in Major League Baseball history. Mays, nicknamed “The Say Hey Kid,” was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.

The documentary features interviews with Mays, his godson Barry Bonds, and son Michael Mays, as well as baseball Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal. 

Say Hey, Willie Mays! Is produced by Company Name in association with Uninterrupted, Zipper Bros. Films and Major League Baseball. The film is directed by Nelson George, with LeBron James,  Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, Philip Byron, Nick Trotta, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Bentley Weiner serving as executive producers, said HBO.■

The live TV sports schedule for the first weekend of fall begins on the baseball diamond, as ESPN on Sunday will showcase New York Yankees’ star Aaron Judge’s historic season as the Yankees host the rival Boston Red Sox. 

Going into Friday night’s Yankees-Red Sox game, Judge was one home run away from Tying Roger Maris’ American League regular-season record of 61 round trippers, and was on pace to become the league's first triple crown winner since Miguel Cabrera accomplished the feat in 2012.

On the college football front, top-ranked Georgia faces Kent State on ESPN Plus while second-ranked Alabama hosts Vanderbilt on the SEC Network. Third-ranked Ohio State plays Wisconsin on ABC and fourth-ranked Michigan hosts Maryland on Fox. Fifth-ranked Clemson battles No. 21 Wake Forest on ABC. 

Other games include No. 6 Oklahoma-Kansas State (Fox), No. 7 USC-Oregon State (Pac-12 Network), and No.10 Arkansas-Texas A&M (ESPN).

In the boxing ring, retired former boxing champion Floyd Mayweather will fight mixed martial arts fighter Mikuru Asakura Saturday night in a pay-per-view exhibition fight from Japan. PPV.com will distribute the event, which carries a suggested retail price of $29.99. 

On the soccer field, Peacock, USA and NBC will air eight live Premier League games on Saturday, while FS2 airs three UEFA Nations League games on Sunday.

On the links, NBC and Golf Channel will feature final round coverage of the President’s Cup golf tournament, while on Sunday CBS will televise coverage from the Professional Bull Riders.

Action from the the third week of the NFL season begins Sunday afternoon with regional game coverage on CBS and Fox, as well as NBC's Sunday Night Football telecast of the San Francisco 49'ers-Denver Broncos matchup.■ 

This weekend’s lineup of live TV sports events begins in the octagon with ESPN Plus’s UFC 278 pay-per-view fight card featuring a main event welterweight rematch between champion Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards.

Usman will look to defend his title against Edwards after defeating him via unanimous decision in 2015. ABC and ESPN will air UFC 278 undercard fights leading up to the PPV event. 

In the boxing ring, DAZN and PPV.com on Saturday afternoon will distribute the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua heavyweight championship rematch fight. Joshua will look to regain three heavyweight title belts after losing to Usyk last September in a major upset. 

ESPN Saturday night will step in the ring with a WBO featherweight title bout between champion Emanuel Navarrete and Eduardo Baez. Showtime on Saturday will also televise a fight card featuring a main event bout between junior welterweights Omar Figueroa Jr. and Sergey Lipinets. 

On the links, NBC and Golf Channel will televise final round coverage of the PGA BMW Championship golf tournament.

USA, Peacock and NBC will televise nine Premier League soccer games over the course of the weekend, while FS1 on Sunday will telecast a MLS doubleheader. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock will televise the Chicago White Sox-Cleveland Guardians game, while ESPN’s telecast will feature an American League East Divisional matchup between the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. ABC on Saturday will televise a Little League World Series doubleheader, while ESPN and ABC will air second round coverage of the tournament. ■ 

This weekend’s lineup of live TV sports action starts on the baseball diamond as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox continue their longtime rivalry.

On Saturday night Fox will televise the Yankees-Red Sox game from Fenway Park, while ESPN on Sunday will air the rubber game of the series as part of its Sunday Night Baseball presentation.

Also from the baseball diamond, Peacock on Sunday will stream the San Diego Padres-Washington Nationals game.

In the boxing ring, ESPN on Saturday will televise the Teofimo Lopez-Pedro Campa junior welterweight fight, while in the octagon ESPN will air the Marlon Vera-Dominick Cruz UFC bantamweight fight.

On the links NBC and Golf Channel will offer final round coverage of the PGA St. Jude Championship golf championship, while on the soccer field USA, NBC and Peacock will air a combined nine Premier League games over the weekend.

ABC will offer a Sunday WNBA doubleheader telecast featuring the Minnesota Lynx-Connecticut Sun and the Seattle Storm-Las Vegas Aces games. ■  

The launch of the 2022-23 Premier League soccer season kicks off the lineup of live TV sports events slated for the first weekend of August. 

NBC Sports will mark its 10th year of Premier League coverage with eight live games on streaming service Peacock over the weekend, while USA Network will provide live coverage of the Chelsea-Everton matchup. 

Also on the soccer field, ABC on Saturday will air MLS action featuring Seattle at Atlanta, while Fox will televise the Dallas-Portland contest. 

On the links, USA Network and NBC will offer final round coverage of the LPGA British Open while CBS and the Golf Channel televise weekend coverage of the PGA Wyndham Championship.

ESPN will enter the octagon Saturday night for a UFC Fight Night telecast featuring a main event bout between light heavyweights Thiago Santos and Jamahal Hill. 

Peacock’s Sunday afternoon baseball game will feature an American League battle between the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Guardians, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will showcase National League West rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. 

ABC will hit the hardwood Sunday with WNBA doubleheader action, beginning with the Connecticut Sun-Chicago Sky contest, followed by the Las Vegas Aces-Seattle Storm game.■ 

Prime Video Tuesday pitched a new trailer for its women's baseball-themed series A League of Their Own, debuting Aug. 12 on the streaming service.

The series, a reimagining of the 1992 film of the same name produced by Penny Marshall and starring Tom Hanks, follows the exploits of a generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball, said the service.

The cast for the series includes Abbi Jacobson, Chante Adams, D'Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo and Roberta Colindrez.

A League of Their Own is executive produced by Will Graham, Abbi Jacobson, Hailey Wierengo, Desta Tedros Reff and Jamie Babbit.

Prime Video on Aug. 12 will stream all eight episodes of the series, which is produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television, in association with Field Trip Productions.■

The live TV sports lineup for the last weekend in June starts on the baseball diamond with ESPN’s coverage of the College World Series matchup between Mississippi and Oklahoma. 

On the Major League Baseball front, Peacock on Sunday will stream an afternoon baseball game between the New York Mets and the Miami Marlins, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will feature the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Atlanta Braves.

In other sports, ESPN on Saturday will telecast a live UFC Fight Night card featuring a main event lightweight bout between Arman Tsarukyan and Mateusz Gamrot. 

On the greens, NBC will provide final rounds coverage of the Women’s PGA Championship and CBS along with Golf Channel will televise the Travelers Championship PGA event. 

On Saturday, Fox and NBC will each televise a USFL semifinals playoffs game. On the soccer field, ESPN and ABC on Saturday will each televise MLS games, while both ABC and FS1 will feature a live MLS game telecast on Sunday.

From the race track, CBS Saturday will televise the SRX Series race from South Boston, Va., while USA Network will air the Xfinity Tennessee Lottery 250 race. NBC Sunday will televise the Ally 400 NASCAR Cup race. ■   

History examines the lives and careers of Black Major League Baseball players arriving on the heels of Jackie Robinson’s historic integration of the league in a new documentary, After Jackie, debuting June 18.

The documentary looks at the often overlooked story of the second wave of Black baseball players entering the major leagues after Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Players such as Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson picked up where Robinson left off in challenging the league to move toward greater roster integration, as well as to advance the status of Black baseball players both on and off the field, according to History. 

The documentary, executive produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Stanley Nelson along with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, features rare interviews with White and Gibson, as well as current and former baseball stars including Mookie Betts, CC Sabathia, Ken Griffey Jr., and Joe Torre.

In an edited Multichannel News interview with Nelson, here’s what he and History want you to know about After Jackie.

After Jackie looks at how Robinson’s integration of baseball often  overshadowed Black players coming up behind him: "There's been a lot done on Jackie Robinson, but there really hasn't been anything done on the group of baseball players that came right after Jackie. As incredible as Jackie Robinson was and what he went through, the generation right behind Jackie didn't have the scrutiny, didn't have press following them and didn’t have that level of attention. So I thought it was a chance to make a film that really centers on something that most people don't think about."

Jackie Robinson both helped and hurt the Black baseball stars that followed him: "It made their breaking into baseball harder. Bill White told us a story about how he was in the minor leagues and he was the only Black person there, but he didn’t receive any attention and there weren’t any reporters following him …he was basically by himself. So in some aspects it made their lives hard. It was amazing that they persevered, but I think it also helped their careers both during their playing days and after baseball, as so many of them went on to do great things."

After Jackie reveals some surprising facts about Black baseball players both on and off the field: "One of the facts that really surprised me was that African-Americans were part of professional baseball in the 1890s, but they were voted out of the major leagues by the white players. So for the next 50 years there were no African-American players in professional baseball. Also, I don’t think I really understood how much Jackie was part of the civil rights movement after his playing days were over."

After Jackie hopes to expose a new generation of baseball fans to the unheralded players who stepped to the plate after Robinson: "We’re looking at reaching both groups of fans. The trick to making a film like this is to appeal to people like myself who know a little bit about baseball, as well as people that don’t know anything about the story. We have some modern day African-American baseball stars including Mookie Betts, Ken Griffey Jr. and CC Sabathia that appeal to today’s baseball fans."■ 

Also: Byron Allen's HBCU Go Marks Juneteenth With Two Documentaries

Amazon Prime Video Tuesday released the first trailer for its baseball-themed series A League of Their Own, which debuts on the streaming service Aug. 12.

The eight-episode series, a retelling of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film of the same name, follows the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. The show takes a deeper look at race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths towards the field, both in the league and outside of it, according to Prime Video.

The series stars Abbi Jacobson, Chante Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, and Nick Offerman. A League of Their Own is executive produced by Will Graham, Abbi Jacobson, Hailey Wierengo, Desta Tedros Reff, and Jamie Babbit. ■ 

 The TV sports lineup for the Easter holiday weekend starts on the football field as the USFL kicks off its inaugural season on Saturday. 

Fox and NBC on Saturday will simulcast the eight-team league’s first game between the New Jersey Generals and the Birmingham Stallions. 

Sunday’s games include Houston Gamblers-Michigan Panthers (NBC), Philadelphia Stars-New Orleans Breakers (USA) and Tampa Bay Bandits-Pittsburgh Maulers (FS1). The USFL's 10-week season will run through June. 

Also: USFL Kicks Off Inaugural Season: TV Sportsplay 

The NBA Playoffs tip off this weekend with first-round play throughout the weekend. On Saturday ESPN will air the Utah Jazz-Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves-Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors-Philadelphia 76’ers games, while ABC telecasts the Denver Nuggets-Golden State Warriors matchup.

On Sunday, ABC will air the Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics game, and TNT will televise the Chicago Bulls-Milwaukee Bucks contest.

Also: NBA Playoff Ads Nearly sold Out as Post Season Launches on ESPN, TNT

On the ice, ABC on Saturday will televise the Minnesota Wild-St. Louis Blues game, and ESPN on Sunday will telecast the Florida Panthers-Detroit Red Wings matchup.

Showtime on Saturday will step into the pay-per-view boxing ring to distribute the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas welterweight boxing championship fight.

Also: Showtime Punches Up Marketing Efforts for Errol Spence-Yordenis Ugas PPV Boxing Event 

Fox on Sunday hits the race track for the NASCAR Cup City Dirt Race, and ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will feature a matchup between the 2021 World Series champion Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres. 

CBS and the Golf Channel will offer final round coverage of  the PGA RBC Heritage golf tournament throughout the weekend, while streaming service Peacock, CNBC and USA Network will televise live Premier League soccer matches. ■ 

The History Channel in collaboration with LeBron James will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier as part of a documentary debuting June 18 that looks at the plight of black ballplayers entering the league after Robinson.

The documentary, After Jackie, examines the often overlooked story of the second wave of talented Black baseball players including Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson who were up next in the fight for racial equality, said the network. 

The documentary features interviews with White, Gibson, CC Sabathia, Mookie Betts, Ken Griffey Jr., Joe Torre, Dave Roberts, Al Downing and Tim McCarver as they help shed light on black baseball players following Robinson into the league that put their lives on the line to integrate baseball and demand a fairer and more inclusive America for African American athletes around the world, said the network. 

After Jackie is executive produced by James, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, Philip Byro, Stanley Nelson, Andre Gaines, Eli Lehrer, Jim Pasquarella and Nick Trotta. ■ 

Amazon Prime Video will begin exclusively streaming New York Yankees games later this month, with 19 of the 21 games in the package airing on Friday nights. 

Amazon Prime Video began streaming simulcast Yankees games with broadcasters and the YES Network in 2020,  but this is the first time it has exclusive rights for the games. The games will be available at no additional cost to Prime members in the Yankees’ home-team footprint of New York state, Connecticut, north and central New Jersey, and northeast Pennsylvania, with the first contest scheduled for Friday, April 22, as the Yankees host the Cleveland Guardians.

News of the exclusivity of the deal was first reported by The New York Post. 

Amazon’s X-Ray technology, which allows viewers to access live in-game stats, team and player details, and real-time play-by-play information for fans streaming on Android, iOS mobile, and Fire TV, will again be available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Games will be available for replay on Prime Video for 48 hours following their conclusion. Prime Video’s live Yankees games will be available to MLB.TV subscribers outside the Yankees’ home team footprint. 

The games and accompanying Prime Video studio shows will be produced by YES’ Emmy-winning broadcast team, in collaboration with Prime Video. Prime Video’s popular pregame show will return as an extended 30-minute segment hosted by YES’ Meredith Marakovits to preview the evening’s game, highlight marquee matchups and top players, and provide key insights and stats.

YES’ play-by-play announcer Michael Kay will be behind the mic for Prime Video’s Yankees in-game coverage, joined by YES analysts David Cone, Paul O’Neill, Carlos Beltran, John Flaherty, and Cameron Maybin, while Marakovits will be the clubhouse reporter. Prime Video’s coverage will also include a postgame wrap hosted by YES talent, featuring in-game highlights and live press conferences with Yankees manager Aaron Boone. ■ 

Here is the full schedule for exclusive games on Prime Video:

• Friday, April 22 vs. Cleveland Guardians – 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 6 vs. Texas Rangers – 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 13 @ Chicago White Sox – 8 p.m.
• Friday, May 20 vs. Chicago White Sox – 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 27 @ Tampa Bay Rays – 7 p.m.
• Friday, June 10 vs. Chicago Cubs – 7:05 p.m.
• Friday, June 24 vs. Houston Astros – 7 p.m.
• Friday, July 1 @ Cleveland Guardians – 7 p.m.
• Friday, July 8 @ Boston Red Sox – 7 p.m.
• Friday, July 15 vs. Boston Red Sox – 7 p.m.
• Friday, July 22 @ Baltimore Orioles – 7 p.m.
• Friday, July 29 vs. Kansas City Royals – 7 p.m.
• Friday, August 5  @ St. Louis Cardinals – 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, August 16 vs. Tampa Bay Rays – 7 p.m.
• Friday, August 19 vs. Toronto Blue Jays – 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, August 23  vs. New York Mets – 7 p.m.
• Friday, August 26  @ Oakland Athletics – 9:30 p.m.
• Friday, September 9 vs. Tampa Bay Rays – 7 p.m.
• Friday, September 16  @ Milwaukee Brewers – 8 p.m.
• Friday, September 23  vs. Boston Red Sox – 7 p.m.
• Friday, September 30  vs. Baltimore Orioles – 7 p.m.

All game times EDT. Schedule subject to change.

YES Network said Wednesday that it has partnered with Jomboy Media to produce original content exclusively for both the network’s app and linear channel.

Jomboy is known for its breakdowns of baseball games and other sports -- especially its sometimes salty lip reading segments -- that have been popular with YouTube viewers. According to YES, Jomboy will produce its “distinctive style of original content” exclusively for the YES app, while additional content from the company will appear on both the linear channel and YES app. All of the programming will be promoted heavily on both the YES and Jomboy platforms and both companies will explore “new joint programming concepts,” according to YES.

Jomboy founder Jimmy “Jomboy” O’Brien and partner Jake Storiale were scheduled to appear on YES’ Yankees Hot Stove show tonight (March 23) at 10:30 p.m.  

Also: Apple Gets Rights To Stream 'Friday Night Baseball' Games

Among the programming that will appear exclusively on the YES app are Pitching Coach, a series where former Yankees great and current YES analyst David Cone pairs up with O’Brien and Storiale to provide Blitzball lessons. Blitzball is a backyard baseball game popular on Jomboy. Also exclusive to the app are select Jomboy Watch Party shows that will air in conjunction with select YES Yankees streamed telecasts, additional weekly content and other content to come. 

For both the linear channel and app, Jomboy will produce Best of Talkin’ Yanks, a 30-minute best-of show culled from Jomboy’s popular Talkin’ Yanks podcast; and Toeing the Slab, 30-minute best-of shows from the podcast hosted by Cone, Justin Schackil and James Smyth. Jomboy will also make appearances across existing podcasts like Talkin’ Yanks and YES programs like Yankees Hot Stove. 

PBS is saluting baseball getting back on track by offering the Ken Burns documentary series Baseball on PBS.org and the PBS video app starting March 31. There are nine parts. The free streaming offer concludes April 29.  

The documentary came out in 1994. Burns breaks it into nine “Innings,” starting with “Our Game,” which looks at the birth of the game in the 1840s, and continues through 1900. 

“Burns refutes the myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown and traces its roots instead to the earliest days of the nation,” according to PBS. 

Inning 2, “Something Like a War,” looks at the game through 1910 and features Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson, among others. Inning 3, “The Faith of Fifty Million People,” looks at immigrants flocking to America and taking part in American pastimes. Babe Ruth is introduced. 

As the documentary progresses, the ninth Inning details the game from the 1970s to the 1990s, including free agency, the rise in player salaries, scandals and the battle between labor and management. 

PBS streamed the series for free in early 2020, with Major League Baseball on hold due to the pandemic. 

“The story of baseball is the story of America,” said PBS at the time. “It is an epic overflowing with heroes and hopefuls, scoundrels and screwballs. It is a saga spanning the quest for racial justice, the clash of labor and management, the transformation of popular culture, and the unfolding of the national pastime.”

Ken Burns documentaries have looked at Ernest Hemingway, jazz, the Civil War, Prohibition, country music and our national parks, among many other topics. 

Major League Baseball, having worked out a new collective bargaining agreement between the players association and owners, begins its season April 7. ■

TBS officially steps into the pro wrestling arena tonight (January 5) as it takes over distribution of TNT‘s weekly AEW: Dynamite series.

The series, which debuted on TNT in 2019, is moving to TBS to make room for additional TNT National Hockey League telecasts. The network began airing NHL games in October as part of a new seven-year rights deal with the league. 

AEW: Dynamite reached more than 37 million viewers in 2021, and averaged 975,000 total viewers in its final airing on TNT on December 29, Nielsen reported. 

While TBS has aired Major League Baseball games and other live sports events in the past, it has been many years since it prominently featured pro wrestling as part of its schedule. TNT, TBS and truTV associate general manager and SVP of programming and operations Sam Linsky says he‘s confident wrestling fans will follow AEW: Dynamite to TBS. He added TBS is not looking to make any editorial changes to the two-hour AEW: Dynamite telecasts.

“Wrestling fans are about as passionate and smart as you get … I think they’ll find it [on TBS],” Linsky said. 

AEW may also attract new viewers who watch TBS’s more comedy-themed content. Linsky said the lead-in for AEW: Dynamite on TBS is The Big Bang Theory, which attracts a different audience demographic than the viewers who watched the action movies that served as the show’s lead-in on TNT. 

“The way you expand a wrestling brand or any sort of sports or brand is by going outside of the normal fans,” Linksy said. “If let's say half of [Big Bang Theory] viewers stay and watch AEW: Dynamite and fall in love with the great characters, the great action and the great fun of the show, you're expanding the audience while still delivering the product to the hardcore fans.” 

The AEW wrestling franchise will still have a presence on TNT through its weekly Friday series AEW: Rampage. Linsky added TNT will air quarterly specials throughout the year beginning January 8 with Battle of the Belts. AEW will also offer several pay-per-view events in 2022.

“The more you can expose different audiences to this product, the more opportunity you have for people to come in and find it,” Linsky said. “I’m glad to have it in as many places as possible.” ■ 

Live sports programming scored big ratings numbers for several cable networks in October, as nearly half of the month‘s top 10 most-watched networks in primetime offered multiple high-profile live sports events. 

ESPN was primetime‘s most-watched cable network from Sept. 27 to Oct. 31, averaging 2.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Leading the way was Monday Night Football, which averaged more than 13.5 million viewers during the period, said Nielsen. Coverage of Major League Baseball‘s postseason, college football and the new National Basketball Association and National Hockey League seasons also contributed to the network’s primetime win. 

TBS finished third for the month with 2 million viewers on the strength of its postseason baseball coverage. Its MLB playoff games averaged 4.4 million viewers, including an average of 5.2 million viewers for its Los Angeles Dodgers-Atlanta Braves National League Championship Series coverage, reported Sports Media Watch. 

FS1 pulled into sixth place with 921,000 viewers, largely on its coverage of baseball‘s American League playoffs as well as its college football telecasts, while NFL Network finished 10th with 683,000 viewers, buoyed by Thursday Night Football.

With all four networks posting year-to-year gains in October, sports analyst Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports, said viewers are back to consuming live sports programming in big numbers. “With the league schedules back to where they’re supposed to be seasonally, with no presidential election to contend with and with sports telecasts [enhanced by] featuring audiences in the stands, it all adds up to strong ratings performances for live sports programming,” he said. 

Fox News Channel finished second in the primetime race for the month with 2.3 million viewers, while MSNBC finished fourth with 1.2 million viewers. Hallmark Channel was fifth with 926,000 watchers, HGTV claimed the seventh slot with 907,000 viewers, TLC was eighth with 803,000 viewers and INSP came in ninth with 775,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.

On the total-day front, Fox News was first with 1.4 million viewers, followed by ESPN (892,000 viewers), MSNBC (680,000), TBS (627,000) and Hallmark Channel (547,000), Nielsen said. 

Live sports programming continued to influence the primetime ratings charts as baseball-infused TBS and football-driven ESPN came out on top for the second week in a row.

TBS finished first among all cable networks during the week of Oct. 18 to Oct. 24, averaging 3.1 million viewers on the strength of its coverage of baseball’s National League Championship Series. TBS’ Oct. 23 Los Angeles Dodgers-Atlanta Braves Game 6 telecast averaged nearly 7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. 

ESPN finished second for the week with 3 million viewers, led by its Oct. 18 Buffalo Bills-Tennessee Titans Monday Night Football telecast, which drew 12.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

National sports network FS1 pulled up to fourth place on the primetime charts after drawing 5.8 million viewers for its coverage of Game 6 of the Boston Red Sox-Houston Astros American League Championship Series on Oct. 22, said Nielsen.

Fox News finished third for the week with 2.3 million viewers, with MSNBC finishing fifth with 1.2 million viewers.

Hallmark Channel (1.1 million viewers), TNT (926,000), HGTV (887,000), TLC (786,000) and INSP (748,000) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks for the week.

Fox News continued its impressive run atop the total day charts, winning for the 36th consecutive week. ESPN (960,000 viewers), TBS (831,000), MSNBC (696,000) and the Hallmark Channel (605,000) finished behind the Fox News, according to Nielsen. 

Just months after the major pro sports leagues resumed play after the pandemic forced an unprecedented shutdown of live sports for nearly a year, COVID-19 is still having an adverse effect on the live sports event business.

While the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines has paved the way for a return of most pro sports events in 2021 — and has allowed fans to attend events at full capacity in many venues — observers said the industry has not yet declared victory against the virus.

“We’re not out of the woods yet with COVID,” sports analyst Lee Berke said. “The industry still has to be cautious. There will be these outbreaks that will cause last-minute switches and cancellations.”

Indeed, last Thursday (July 15), several New York Yankees players tested positive for COVID-19, forcing a postponement of the Yankees-Boston Red Sox game two days after Major League Baseball's high-profile All-Star Game. Fortunately the series was able to be completed, but baseball and ESPN missed out on a chance to showcase one of baseball’s fiercest rivalries in a primetime window with very little sports competition. 

Two marquee pay-per-view boxing matches — the scheduled June 19 Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos fight and the July 24 Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder trilogy bout — were postponed after fighters Lopez and Fury tested positive for COVID-19. Both fights have been rescheduled. 

As NBC Sports kicks off its live coverage of the Tokyo Summer Olympics coverage today (July 20), several high-profile U.S. Olympians will not participate in the two-week event due to positive COVID tests. Tennis sensation Coco Gauff and U.S. gymnastics alternate Kara Eaker both recently tested positive for the virus and will not participate in the games. U.S. men’s basketball stars Bradley Beal, Zack LaVine and Jerami Grant were placed under USA Basketball’s health and safety protocols and will not travel with the team. 

The men’s basketball team cancelled an exhibition game against Australia last Friday out of an abundance of caution.

Berke says while the COVID-19 vaccines have allowed live sports producers and programmers to entertain the prospect of returning to a sense of normalcy, he says that for now the industry has to remain vigilant. 

“We’re still in this new normal,” Berke said. “We’re not out of this yet.” 

This weekend’s live TV sports event schedule starts on the basketball court as ABC televises the fifth game of the NBA Finals matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns. The Bucks travel back to Phoenix having tied up the series at two games a piece on the strength of their All-Star player Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In other sports, NBC and the Golf network will offer final coverage of the British Open golf tournament on Saturday and Sunday, while NBC will offer the final stage of the Tour de France cycling series.

CBS on Saturday will continue its coverage of the newly formed SRX auto racing series, while NBCSN on Sunday will offer coverage of the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 NASCAR Cup event. 

On the combat sports front, ESPN on Saturday will feature a UFC Fight Night card featuring the Islam Makhachev-Thiago Moises lightweight main event bout, while Showtime will offer a Saturday night card featuring Jermell Charlo defending his junior middleweight title against Brian Castano.

ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball telecast is scheduled to be the Boston Red Sox visiting the New York Yankees. ESPN was set to televise Thursday night's Red Sox-Yankees contest, but the game was postponed after several Yankees players tested positive for COVID-19.

Next week’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game — the traditional midpoint of the season — is just one of a series of crucial events that could profoundly impact Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports network experiment, according to some analysts.

The All-Star Break (the few off days after the All-Star Game, scheduled this year for July 13 in Denver) is usually the point when the baseball gods decide whether teams are in or out of playoff contention. While there have been a few exceptions over the years, it also is traditionally the time of year when fans decide whether it’s worth it to religiously follow said ball clubs for the remainder of the year. 

For Sinclair’s RSNs, owned by subsidiary Diamond Sports Group and marketed under the Bally Sports Networks moniker, it means the beginning of a series of events that could seal the fate of the channels they bought just two years ago for $9.6 billion.

The All-Star break will likely pass without a streaming carriage deal for the RSNs with YouTube TV, Hulu and fuboTV, which earlier dropped the channels over pricing. YouTube TV has been without the Sinclair RSNs since September, while Hulu and fuboTV dropped the channels in October and January, respectively. 

So far there seems to have been little impact from the decision to drop the channels on the streamers. On June 2, Evercore ISI media analyst Vijay Jayant issued a report that downloads for the YouTube TV, Hulu and fuboTV apps were up sharply during June, largely because of sports like the U.S. Olympic Trials, NBA Playoffs and other non-RSN related fare. 

While Sinclair and the streamers appear to be living well without each other, another deadline approaches that could have a far greater impact — Sinclair’s upcoming broadcast retransmission consent negotiations with Dish Network. That deal expires in August and is expected to include at least discussions regarding the RSNs. Dish dropped the Sinclair RSNs in 2019, and restoring that deal is a key part of Diamond Sports’ attempts to restructure its $8 billion in bond debt. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, Diamond Sports based its future revenue projections on getting that Dish deal done.    

“The countdown clock is ticking,” said LHB Sports, media & entertainment CEO Lee Berke, adding that the more pressing deal to get done is probably the August Dish deal. “It’s July 8. We’ve got 23 days to go.”

“The All-Star Game is coming next week, pennant races are underway, you’ve passed the midpoint of the season,” Berke continued. “If they [Sinclair] are going to cut deals for the RSNs with vMVPDs and Dish, it’s going to have to happen very, very quickly.”

Dish Deal Looms Large

One sports executive who asked not to be named said the importance of the Dish deal can’t be exaggerated.

“I wouldn’t say it’s do or die, but it is ultra, ultra important,” the executive said.   

Dish has driven a hard bargain in past RSN negotiations and seems to have the advantage with Sinclair. After two years without the channels, the subscribers Dish would have lost as a result are already gone. For some observers, the only incentive for Dish to do a deal for the RSNs would be a steep discount in retrans fees for the broadcast channels. 

“That flies against what everybody is looking for in the marketplace from a broadcast standpoint,” Berke said. “If they can achieve it, that’s what Dish does, they negotiate very aggressively.”

On the other hand, Sinclair plans to launch a direct-to-consumer version of the RSNs next year, which could offset those losses. Still, Sinclair has taken an extremely conservative approach to the DTC service, which according to the SEC documents is expected to have 4.4 million customers in five years. Dish represents about 8 million subscribers to the RSNs.  

In a research note last month, Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall wrote that he believed the Dish deal needs to get done before bondholders would commit to a restructuring.

RSNs in general have been under pressure as distributors seek lower prices and pay TV customers jump ship for streaming services. Cord cutting has carved a huge chunk out of the traditional affiliate fee structure of the RSN business — about 6 million cable, satellite and telco TV customers cut the cord in 2020 — and programmers have been hard pressed to find a replacement. While DTC could solve part of that problem, it isn’t expected to be the be all, end all for the business. 

As a result, programmers are looking for other ways to monetize and distribute sports content in addition to traditional models.

NBCUniversal said it plans to shutter sports network NBCSN at the end of this year and shift some of that programming to USA Network and streaming service Peacock. Others like AT&T’s Root Sports Networks, were put on and taken off the block in the past two years, as demand for the channels waned. Root Sports recently agreed to carry the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers on its Root Sports Northwest RSN — jointly owned with the MLB Seattle Mariners — beginning in 2022. That deal could mean that NBCU’s NBC Sports Northwest will close its doors.   

Berke added that whether the NBC RSNs are up for sale or not, it appears that come next basketball season, at least NBC Sports Northwest will be no more. 

“That one’s dropping out of the portfolio regardless of what takes place with the rest," Berke said, adding that an RSN losing all the professional teams in a single city hasn’t happened since 2004, when Fox Sports Chicago lost the Bulls, Cubs, Blackhawks and White Sox to Comcast SportsNet.

“That’s a major shift,” Berke said. “It sure seems to confirm that once the basketball season rolls around, they won’t have anything to show.”    

And while sources said that NBCU has not started a formal process to sell its other RSNs yet — no bankers have been hired nor consultants consulted as of July 9 — the programmer has been thinking outside of the box regarding sports programming.

Peacock‘s Philly Experiment

On June 18, 19 and 20 NBC aired a three-game series between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants exclusively on Peacock. The move was thought by many to be another experiment by the league to look at different ways to distribute content.

In a press release, Major League Baseball said the move was part of its “ongoing commitment to deliver unique game presentations via emerging distribution platforms within the evolving media landscape.”

Back in April, MLB chief operating officer Chris Marinak told SportsPro Media  that the league was trying to “figure out what type of structure would make sense for an over-the-top product that may not require authentication.” 

Currently, RSNs stream in-market games to their pay TV subscribers, not on a standalone basis. The league has its own standalone streaming product — MLB.tv — that allows customers to stream every team’s out-of-market games for $44.99 per month or a single team’s out of market games for $34.99 per month. Blackout restrictions apply. 

Some reports have said that Sinclair has failed to secure approvals from some distributors for its DTC offering, but the company appears to be going full steam ahead with its streaming plans. In the meantime, Sinclair is scheduled to report its Q2 results on Aug. 4, and may have some updates on its DTC status, as well as that of its Dish negotiations. Maybe then investors will decide whether it's worth sticking around for the rest of the regular season.  

The list of major live TV sports programming airing during the extended July 4 holiday weekend revs up on Saturday with CBS's primetime airing of the new Superstar Racing Experience series, which offers short, sprint races featuring a wide range of drivers and courses, according to the network. This week's race will take place from Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. 

Also from the racetrack on Saturday, NBC will televise the Henry 180 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. On Sunday, NBC will air the Honda Indy 200 NTT IndyCar Series race as well as the Jockey Made in America 250 NASCAR race.

In other sports, TNT will conclude its 2021 NBA Playoffs coverage this weekend with Saturday’s Eastern Conference Finals game six between the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks. If Atlanta wins, TNT will air the seventh and final game of the series Monday night. 

Also Read: ESPN Finishes NBA Playoffs Coverage on High Note

Tonight NBC and streaming service Peacock will air game three of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens. The defending champion Lightning hold a 2-0 advantage over the Canadiens going into tonight's game. Game Four of the series airs Monday on NBC and Peacock. 

From the soccer field, ESPN and ABC will offer quarterfinal coverage of the UEFA Euro 2000 soccer tournament on Friday and Saturday. Today ESPN provides coverage of the Spain-Switzerland and Belgium-Italy games, while televising the Czech Republic-Denmark game on Saturday. Also on Saturday, ABC will televise the Ukraine-England contest. 

Copa America quarterfinal games will air Friday on FS1 (Peru-Paraguay and Brazil-Chile) and Saturday on FS2 (Uruguay-Columbia) and FS1 (Argentina-Ecuador).

Also Read: Peacock to Stream Remaining Stanley Cup Final Games

ESPN and ESPN2 will offer third round coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament throughout Friday, Saturday and Monday. 

CBS and Golf Channel will tee off with weekend coverage of the PGA Rocket Mortgage Classic Tournament, while NBC continues its Breeders’ Cup: Challenge Series horse racing coverage with live race telecasts on Saturday and Sunday. NBCSN will provide continuing weekend coverage of the Tour de France cycling event. 

TBS on Sunday will feature afternoon baseball with the San Diego Padres-Philadelphia Phillies telecast while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball coverage will feature the Subway Series matchup between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. 

In the ring, Showtime will feature a live fight card headlined by the Chris Colbert-Tugstsogt Nyambayar super featherweight championship fight. 

Also Read: Showtime to Replay Davis-Barrios PPV Fight as Part of July 3 Boxing Telecast

NBC's telecast of the Indianapolis 500 race Sunday afternoon leads a busy Memorial Day weekend TV Sports schedule. 

NBC will begin its Indy 500 coverage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 11 a.m. (ET) as more than 135,000 people are expected to attend 105th running of the auto race. Also from the motor track, Fox will televise the NASCAR Cup: Coca-Cola 600 race Sunday night. 

In other sports, Fox will take to the baseball field Saturday night with a primetime telecast of the Atlanta Braves-New York Mets game, while ESPN will offer Sunday’s Braves-Mets game as its Sunday Night Baseball telecast.

TNT, ABC and ESPN will continue its NBA Playoffs first round coverage over the three-day weekend. On Saturday, TNT will offer the Milwaukee Bucks-Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets-Portland Trailblazers games, while ESPN will air the Philadelphia 76'ers-Washington Wizards and Utah Jazz-Memphis Grizzlies contests. 

On Sunday, ABC takes over with doubleheader coverage of the New York Knicks-Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns-L.A. Lakers series, while TNT offers coverage of the Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics and LA Clippers-Dallas Mavericks games. TNT will also televise Monday's 76'ers-Wizards and Jazz-Grizzlies games.

The NHL playoffs move into the second round Saturday with NBC’s coverage of the New York Islanders-Boston Bruins game, as well as Sunday’s Colorado Avalanche game against the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights-Minnesota Wild series. 

On Saturday night, DAZN will stream the Devin Haney-Jorge Linares lightweight championship fight while Showtime airs the Nordine Oubaali-Nonito Donaire bantamweight championship fight.  

On the golf front, NBC and CBS will air weekend coverage of the Senior PGA Championship and the PGA Charles Schwab Challenge, respectively. 

This weekend's live TV sports telecasts tip off Saturday with a full slate of NBA playoffs games tipping off on ESPN and ABC. ESPN will televise the Miami Heat-Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks-LA Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers-Denver Nuggets games, while ABC airs the Boston Celtics-Brooklyn Nets game in primetime.

NBA first round playoffs coverage continues on Sunday, with TNT airing the Washington Wizards-Philadelphia 76’ers and the Atlanta Hawks-New York Knicks contests, while ABC televises the Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns game.

Major League Soccer games will air Saturday on ABC (LA Galaxy at Portland) and Sunday on Fox (Atlanta at Seattle) and FS1 (Austin at Nashville SC), while Premier League soccer games will air Sunday on NBC, USA Network and NBCSN. 

Also Read: NBA Launches 'That Game' Campaign During Playoffs

ESPN and CBS will feature weekend coverage of the prestigious PGA Championship golf tournament. The tournament is the second of golf's four major championship events. 

NBC will continue its coverage of the NHL Playoffs with a Saturday doubleheader featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins-NY Islanders and Vegas Golden Knights-Minnesota Wild games. 

NBC will take to the track on Sunday with coverage of the USATF: Boost Boston Games track and field event. On the auto racing front, NBC and NBCSN on Saturday will telecast Indianapolis 500 qualifying races.

Also Read: Bellator's Scott Coker Looks to Strike A Blow with Showtime Deal

ESPN will offer ring action Saturday night with a fight card headlined by the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor undisputed junior welterweight championship fight. Also on Saturday, Showtime will offer the Bellator MMA 259 fight card featuring the Chris Cyborg-Leslie Smith featherweight championship rematch. 

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball contest features the Oakland A’s against the Los Angeles Angels.  

The National Hockey League will drop the puck on its postseason campaign Saturday, highlighting a busy weekend in live sports events.

NBC will kick off its postseason coverage with a Saturday primetime telecast featuring the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals matchup, while NHL Network will air the Vancouver Canucks-Edmonton Oilers game. On Sunday NBC will offer first round coverage of the New York Islanders-Pittsburgh Penguins and the Minnesota North Stars-Vegas Golden Knights series. 

Also Read: Turner Sports Secures NHL TV Rights Deal

The NBA will wrap up its regular season slate Sunday with an ESPN doubleheader with playoff implications featuring the Boston Celtics at the New York Knicks game and the Memphis Grizzlies at the Golden State Warriors contest.

The WNBA will launch its 2021 season opening weekend with a pair of games on ABC Saturday and two games Sunday on CBSSN. 

On Saturday NBC will rev up its engines to air the IndyCar Series GMR Grand Prix race, while Fox will take to the bowling lanes on Sunday with live coverage of the PBA Finals. CBS and the Golf Channel will feature weekend coverage of the PGA’s Byron Nelson golf tournament, while ESPN will offer Sunday Night Baseball coverage of the St. Louis Cardinals-San Diego Padres contest.

Showtime will air a Saturday night tripleheader boxing card featuring the Luis Nery-Brandon Figueroa super bantamweight championship bout, while the UFC offers its UFC 262 pay-per-view fight card featuring the Charles Oliveira-Michael Chandler lightweight championship main event.

Also Read: Showtime Sets June Gervonta Davis-Mario Barrios PPV Boxing Event 

 This weekend’s look at live sports events telecasts starts in the boxing ring as DAZN distributes Saturday’s super middleweight championship unification fight between Canelo Alvarez -- arguably boxing’s biggest draw -- against undefeated champion Billy Joe Saunders. 

Read Also: Canelo Alvarez, Floyd Mayweather Lead Busy Spring PPV Boxing Schedule

Also Saturday, ESPN will step into the octagon with a UFC Fight Night card featuring a women’s flyweight main event fight between Marina Rodriguez and Michelle Waterson.

Pro soccer action includes CBS' coverage of Saturday's NWSL Challenge Cup final between Portland Thorns FX and NJ/NY Gotham FC. Also on Saturday ESPN will air the MLS' NYCFC-Orlando game and Fox will televise the league's LAFC-La Galaxy contest,  while NBC will air the Chelsea-Manchester City Premier League game. On Sunday ABC will look to score viewers with  an MLS Soccer doubleheader featuring the Atlanta-Inter Miami CF game and the Seattle-Portland contest. 

Also Sunday ESPN will offer NBA doubleheader action with the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks-L.A. Clippers telecasts.

On the auto racing front, FS1 on Saturday will offer the NASCAR Xfinity series Steakhouse Elite 200 race, while on Sunday ESPN will televise the Formula Spanish Grand Prix race and FS1 will offer the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 race. 

In other sports, CBS will deliver weekend final round coverage of the PGA Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game will feature the Philadelphia Phillies--Atlanta Braves matchup. 

Read also: Regional Sports Nets: Apples and Oranges 

The prestigious Kentucky Derby and a big heavyweight pay-per-view boxing match highlight the live sports events ushering in the first weekend of May. 

The first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown takes place Saturday as NBC provides live coverage of the Kentucky Derby. This year’s race comes eight months after the 2020 Kentucky Derby race, which was moved to Sept. 5 from May 2 due to the pandemic. 

Fox Sports on Saturday will tee up its first pay-per-view boxing event of the year, headlined by the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Chis Arreola heavyweight division fight. Prior to the PPV card, Fox broadcasting will televise the Erislandy Lara-Thomas LaManna middleweight boxing match.

Also on Saturday, ESPN2 will step into the Octagon with coverage of a UFC Fight Night mixed martial arts fight card, headlined by the Dominick Reyes-Jiri Prochazka light heavyweight fight.  

Also Read: UFC Moves Forward with July Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier PPV Event

On the soccer field, NBCSN will offer five live Premier League game telecasts across two days, while NBC will provide Saturday afternoon coverage of the Fulham-Chelsea Premier League  contest. On Sunday, MLS takes the field with live game telecasts on ESPN (Inter Miami CF-Nashville SC) and FS1 (LA Galaxy at Seattle.)

Also Read: Super League is Super Done

CBS will deliver to golf fans live weekend coverage of the PGA Valspar Championship tournament, while auto racing fans can catch Sunday action on ESPN (Formula One’s Portuguese Grand Prix), FS1 (NASCAR Cup’s Bushy McBusch Race 400) and NBCSN (IndyCar Series’ XPEL 375).

NBC on Sunday will take to the ice for the Tampa Bay Lightning-Detroit Red Wings telecast, while ABC will hit the court to televise the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets-Milwaukee Bucks afternoon game. 

Also Read: Turner Sports Secures NHL TV Rights Deal

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will feature the New York Mets visiting the Philadelphia Phillies.  

The 2021 Masters golf tournament tees off this weekend’s lineup of live sport events. 

CBS will offer live final round coverage of the prestigious Masters tournament Saturday and Sunday from Augusta, Ga. The event comes just five months after the 2020 Masters tournament, which was rescheduled due to the pandemic. 

In other sports, ESPN on Saturday night will provide coverage of the NCAA Frozen Four men’s college hockey championship tournament finals between St. Cloud State and Massachusetts. 

On the combat sports front, ABC will feature a Saturday afternoon live UFC mixed martial arts fight between middleweights Marvin Vettori-Kevin Holland. From the squared ring, ESPN Saturday night will air the Joe Smith Jr-Maxim Vlasov World Boxing Organization light heavyweight championship fight, while Showtime will feature a fight card highlighted by the Jerwin Ancajas-Jonathan Javier Rodriguez junior bantamweight title fight. DAZN will also step in the ring with two female championship fights. 

Also on Saturday night, ABC will feature an NBA matchup between the L.A. Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets, two of the top teams in the league.

From the motor racing track, NBC on Saturday will air the Monster Energy Supercross race from Atlanta.

ESPN on Sunday will present a national Major League Baseball game telecast featuring the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves, while MLB Network will provide a doubleheader slate featuring the New York Yankees-Tampa Bay Rays and the Washington Nationals-L.A. Dodgers games.  

YES Network said Friday that it has averaged about 391,000 viewers for each of its first six telecasts during the opening week of the 2021 baseball season, its best showing since 2012 and comes despite being blacked out by a trio of streaming services.

YES Network has been without carriage on three top streaming services -- YouTube TV, Hulu Plus Live TV and FuboTV for months. The regional sports network, which airs New York Yankees baseball games in the New York metro area, cited Nielsen ratings for the New York DMA. According to YES, it was the RSN’s best opening week since 2012, when Nielsen said it averaged 416,000 viewers for the first week of that season. 

That news comes after YES said its Opening Day game between the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays broke streaming records for the channel. YES said its April 1 telecast of the game attracted 543,000 total viewers, including 72,739 unique viewers to its authenticated YES app. That made it the most streamed live game on the network ever, either on its recently launched YES app or its predecessor Fox Sports GO. 

Also Read: Bally Sports RSNs Strike Out with Streamers on Opening Day

YES went dark to YouTube TV and Hulu Live Plus TV customers in October. FuboTV dropped the channel in January. The Yankees network is available via traditional distributors like Comcast, Charter Communications, Altice USA’s Optimum, DirecTV and Verizon Fios in the New York metro area.  

Sinclair Broadcast Group owns a minority interest in YES and has been negotiating carriage talks for that channel as well as 21 former Fox Sports RSNs. Those former Fox sports channels -- rebranded under the Bally Sports name on March 31 --  also are not available on the streaming services, but Sinclair officials have said they are trying to work on a deal. 

Also Read: RSNs Scramble for Streaming Deals as Opening Day Approaches

The lack of streaming RSN programming isn’t limited to the Bally Sports Networks and YES. Sling TV, the OTT arm of satellite TV service Dish Network, which dropped the former Fox Sports RSNs in 2019, has been without Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), home of the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, and three NBC Sports RSNs (NBC Sports Washington, NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California) since April 1.

It looks as if Bally Sports regional sports networks have failed to strike a deal with streaming providers YouTube TV, Hulu and FuboTV before the first pitch on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day April 1.

Bally Sports, the new name for Sinclair Broadcast Group’s former Fox Sports RSNs, failed to hammer out a deal with the streaming services before 1:10 p.m. ET April 1, the first pitch of the contest between the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers. Bally Sports Great Lakes, formerly Sports Time Ohio, is the TV home of the Indians and was scheduled to air the game at 1:10 p.m. The RSN home of the Tigers, Bally Sports Detroit (formerly Fox Sports Detroit) also is airing the game. 

The Bally Sports RSNs have agreements with most traditional satellite and cable TV providers. But streaming services, like YouTube TV, Hulu Live and FuboTV, which have a younger audience attractive to advertisers, have so far held out.   

Also Read: Changes at Sinclair’s RSNs Just Start With Name Change

YES Network, in which Sinclair owns a minority stake, also didn’t reach a deal with YouTube TV, Hulu or FuboTV in time for the first pitch in its 1:10 p.m. matchup between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. 

Earlier Thursday Dish Network officially dropped the three NBC Sports Network RSNs and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).  Dish hasn’t had an agreement for the Sinclair RSNs since July 2019. 

Sinclair RSN spokesman Michael Padavano did not return a request for comment. 

Also Read: RSNs Scramble for Streaming Deals as Opening Day Approaches 

FuboTV dropped the RSNs in January 2020,  YouTube TV dropped them in September, and Hulu Live in  October. 

But there was still some hope that they could reach a deal before opening day. Alas, that doesn’t seem to be. 

As of 1:35 p.m. ET, the only streaming service that is carrying all RSNs is AT&T TV, through its $84.99 per month Choice Plan. 

Also Read: Sinclair RSNs: Timing is Everything 

Fubo TV reached a carriage deal with Sinclair’s Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture with the Chicago Cubs and separate from the Bally Sports RSNs -- on March 31. 

Sinclair bought the former Fox Sports RSNs in 2019 for $10 billion.  Last year gaming giant Bally Corp. agreed to pay Sinclair $88 million over 10 years for naming rights for the 21 regional sports networks.

Pricing of the channels appears to be the main culprit in the standoff. According to Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, on average, RSN pricing ranges from a high of $6.85 per subscriber per month to the least expensive at 34 cents per subscriber per month. Overall, the average price of regional sports networks is about $3.53 per customer per month, Kagan said. 

According to website The Streamable, YouTube and Hulu also have another reason for holding back on the RSNs -- most of their subscribers don’t watch them.

In a March 10 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Streamable co-founder Jason Gurwin estimated that only 5% to 10% of streaming TV subscribers watch RSNs. 

"The 90% of subscribers who don't watch it are subsidizing the 10% that do," Gurwin told the newspaper.  "Given that an RSN is one of the most expensive channels in a cable bundle, it's just not sustainable for these packages. Even at a more expensive $65 a month, the services are more or less breaking even on the carriage fees that they pay to carry all the channels in the bundle." 

Baseball season starts Wednesday but it’s still not exactly Take Me Out to the Ballgame for ESPN, which will televise four opening day matchups including an exclusive telecast of the New York Mets playing the Washington Nationals.

COVID-19 is still keeping most fans out of stadiums and is forcing television networks to alter the way they produce and announce games. 

At ESPN, many of the techniques and procedures used last season will still be in place for at least the beginning of 2020, said ESPN coordinating producer Phil Orlins.

Technology enables ESPN to put on a good show despite having many of its announcers and producers working from home, or at least away from the ballpark.

Also Read: RSNs Scramble for Streaming Deals as Opening Day Approaches

“The capacity to transfer data, speed at extremely high speeds is great from MLB ballparks,” said Orlins speaking to reporters. It is also less costly and more efficient than flying a squadron of people and a fleet of trucks from city to city. “I think this is a place where we probably needed to be eventually, and because of circumstances that took place last year, got there quickly and will stay there.”

Orlins noted that on a personal level, “I do miss working in a truck. I miss going out to dinner in far-off cities, things of that nature.”

But from a professional point of view, business is business and there’s no crying in baseball.

Also Read: The Five Spot: Jessica Mendoza, Baseball and Softball Analyst, ESPN

"If we were coming out with a business plan in a world where extraordinary quantities of data can be transferred at the speed of light all across the globe and I came out with a plan that said we were going to fly everybody to site to meet a massive set of trucks for every game, I don't know how far I would get in presenting that business plan," Orlins said.

Instead of the traditional armada of production trucks, most of ESPN's technical activities will be done remotely, centralized from its Bristol headquarters, with about 20% of games being produced at a hub in Charlotte.

For Sunday Night Baseball, Orlins said he expects that reporter Buster Olney will be on site at every game, while play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian and baseball star turned analyst Alex Rodriguez will start the year in the Bristol studio.

“We like the concept of the reporter at the site,” he said. “In some ways I think it actually has increased the essential value of the reporter for him to be the one person at site.”

As for Vasgersian and Rodriguez moving from the studio to the stadium, “I don't know that I have any guarantees, predictions on when that would change or if that will change,” Orlins said.

Orlins said there are advantages and disadvantages to having ARod and other analysts in the studio. It’s easier for him to stay focused at the studio, with fewer distractions and visitors, Orlins said.

Rodriguez and other ESPN staffers won’t be getting access to players and coaches if and when they go to the ballpark. “The reality of it right now is if you're not going to be allowed on the field and you're not going to be allowed in the clubhouse and all you're going to do is go to a booth.” he said.

“So then the other question really comes down to how you call the game,” he said. “I think the reality of it is probably 95% good from Bristol or from home if you have your home setup set up really properly, which is not a guarantee for everybody. Some people are better with technology, set up better monitors and all that kind of stuff, and other people frankly struggle with it.

Calling the game from home can be tricky because you can see only what’s on a screen. ESPN provides announcers with multiple screens, including the tight shots viewers see n TV, plus a wide angle that shows the whole field.

Even at the ballpark, a play-by-play announcer balances his time between looking at a monitor and being able to look up at the field and see everything happening.

“It's not as easy as it sounds,” Orlins said. “It's really hard for an announcer to bounce back and forth between like vivid program shots where the players look normal and then like try to, in the middle of a play, switch over and watch little ants running around. It's almost alluring to look at the prettier, bigger pictures.”

An announcer captivated by the better shot might see a runner rounding third base, but miss the outfielder bobbling the ball, so that’s something that needs to be managed.

He added that ESPN is getting more out of Zoom calls with the managers. “They're quick to get on, to get started. There's not as many people hovering around, waiting outside the office, extra people coming in, coming out, things of that nature," he said.

Crowd reaction remains an issue. With some fans in the stadium it will be easier for ESPN to avoid the sound of an empty ballpark.

Also Read: FCC Gives ESPN COVID-19-Related Break on Audio Descriptions

“I miss the authentic sound, but I also miss the personality. Like I just miss the kid or the father catching the home run.” Instead a home run ball will rattle around empty seats until an attendant goes and gets it. “I miss the fun,” he said.

For Sunday NIght Baseball there will be plenty of cameras, with at least 10 manned and some additional robotic cameras. There will be a minimum of five super slo-mos at games, with one ultra-slow motion.

There will be a small ESPN core crew at site, plus, a substantial local crew at site. “but the productions themselves, the producers, the directors, the switching, lead audio, et cetera, all take place in the control room back in Bristol,” Orlins said.

Weekday games will also be fully produced through Bristol and Charlotte control rooms. Those games will work off a world feed provided by the home regional sports network. ESPN enhance that feed with at least two or more of its own cameras.

“That allows us to kind of cut on and off of their world feed and cover the stories that we're talking about, the people that we're talking about, create our own highlight packages,” Orlins said.

Last year ESPN did the non-exclusive games with none of its own people on site. It hired some people through the local teams, and local RSNs. This year it is bringing a small single truck and taking the RSN world feed through that truck back to Bristol and hiring two or three camera operators. That means having six to eight people at the game and about 25 people in Bristol.

For its national games, ESPN will have about 40 people at the site, including about 12 camera operators. Six or seven people will be traveling from ESPN and the rest will be local. That’s “very very small compared to what it would have been when the full crew was travelling,” he said.

About 25 people will work on the games from Bristol.

Orlins noted that ESPN has been growing its baseball audience among women and Hispanics.

“We have an interesting, different and diverse group of talent,” he said. “I've never really presented a lineup that is this multilingual and this diverse, and I just think it's a good place to be with where we're seeing our research indicate the sport is showing its most upside, its most growth.”

The YES Network said Wednesday they have agreed to stream 21 New York Yankees games on Amazon Prime Video this year at no extra charge to Amazon Prime subscribers.

The games will be available in the Yankees’ home-team footprint, which includes New York state, Connecticut, northeast Pennsylvania, and north and central New Jersey, and will be simulcasts of games produced by YES airing on PIX11 and other over-the-air partners for Yankees telecasts. Fans can watch in or outside the home on hundreds of compatible Android, iOS mobile and Fire TV devices. They can also access the games by streaming from the web or by using the Prime Video app on smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, game consoles, and select smart TVs. A list of compatible devices is available here.

The first game will air on April 28, when the team takes on the Tampa Bay Rays.  

The streamed games will feature X-Ray, the Amazon Prime Video feature that allows viewers streaming on Android, iOS mobile, and Fire TV devices to access live  in-game stats, real-time play-by-play information and more. Prime Video also will air a 15-minute pre-game show featuring YES Network on-air talent for the broadcasts. 

Schedule of Yankees games on Prime Video

Sunday, April 18             vs. Tampa Bay – 1:00pm

Friday, April 23               @ Cleveland – 7:00pm

Tuesday, April 27           @ Baltimore – 6:30pm

Friday, May 14               @ Baltimore – 7:00pm

Friday, May 21               vs. Chicago White Sox – 7:00pm

Saturday, May 29           @ Detroit – 4:00pm

Sunday, May 30             @ Detroit – 1:00pm

Saturday, June 12          @ Philadelphia – 4:00pm

Sunday, June 20            vs. Oakland – 1:00pm       

Friday, July 2                 vs. New York Mets – 7:00pm

Sunday, July 11             @ Houston – 2:00pm

Friday, July 23               @ Boston – 7:00pm

Tuesday, July 27            @ Tampa Bay – 7:00pm

Friday, July 30               @ Miami – 7:00pm

Sunday, Aug. 15            @ Chicago White Sox – 2:00pm

Tuesday, Aug. 17           vs. Boston – 7:00pm

Sunday, Aug. 22            vs. Minnesota – TBD

Saturday, Aug. 28          @ Oakland – 4:00pm

Friday, Sept. 17             vs. Cleveland – 7:00pm

Friday, Sept. 24              @ Boston – 7:00pm

Wednesday, Sept. 29     @ Toronto – 7:00pm

All game times ET.  Schedule subject to change.

ESPN said that it re-signed former baseball star Alex Rodriguez, who will continue as the analyst in the network’s Sunday Night Baseball booth for the 2021 season.

Also returning to the Sunday Night Baseball booth will be play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian, who also signed a new deal with ESPN, and Buster Olney, ESPN’s senior MLB insider.

Rodriguez’s new contract permits him to continue to work with Fox, where he works as Major League Baseball studio analyst.

The Sunday Night Baseball team will be on EPSN for opening night on April 1, when the Washington Nationals are scheduled to play the New York Mets. 

Sunday Night Baseball is set to debut for the season on April 4 when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Chicago White Sox. 

HBO will highlight the life and career of baseball all-star CC Sabathia in a new documentary debuting Dec. 22.

Under the Grapefruit Tree: The CC Sabathia Story will look at the career of the famed pitcher, who won 251 games during his decorated 19-year career, the network said. Featuring behind-the-scenes footage from his final season with the New York Yankees in 2019, the documentary will follow Sabathia's career from his origins in Vallejo, Ca. through his battle with substance abuse and his eventual World Series championship year with the Yankees. 

“I couldn't be more grateful for the chance to give viewers an inside look into my career and to share my unfiltered story,” said Sabathia in a statement. “I struggled for a long time with alcohol addiction and anxiety, which I pretty much hid from everyone I knew. It’s my hope we can inspire athletes and non-athletes alike to open up and let their friends, family and teammates know that there is a path through this. You are not alone.”

Sports fans will have plenty to watch this weekend as the World Series marches on, the UFC offers a major pay-per-view event and the Big Ten returns to the football field.

After splitting the first two games, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays each look to take control of the 2020 World Series this weekend beginning with game three Friday night followed by game four Saturday night and game five on Sunday--all airing live on Fox broadcasting. The Dodgers are looking to win their first World Series since 1988, while the Rays are looking to take home the series trophy for the first time in franchise history. 

Also on tap this weekend is the UFC 254 mixed martial arts pay-per-view event from Abu Dhabi featuring a Khabib Nurmagomedov-Justin Gaethje lightweight championship main event. ESPN Plus will distribute the fight card to subscribers of the streaming service in a rare 2 p.m. (ET) start time.

The Big Ten Conference will kick off its 2020 season on Friday with Wisconsin facing Illinois on the Big Ten Network. Other big nationally televised Big Ten weekend matchups include Saturday’s Ohio State-Nebraska game on Fox. The 14-team conference last month decided to launch a conference-only football schedule after initially announcing in August that it would not play this season due to coronavirus concerns. 

The NFL has switched NBC’s Oct. 25 Sunday Night Football telecast to the Seattle Seahawks-Arizona Cardinals game from its originally scheduled Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Las Vegas Raiders contest after the Raiders placed several players on its COVID-19/reserve list. The league said the move was made to ensure a game would be played on Sunday night even though the Raiders-Buccaneers game is still scheduled to be played Sunday afternoon, according to ESPN.com.

For a list of live, televised sports events this weekend, click here.

Fox Sports’ coverage of the 2020 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays debuts tonight (Oct. 20) on Fox broadcasting and Fox Deportes.

The 116th edition of the Fall Classic will be played at a neutral site -- Globe Life Field in Arlington Tx -- for the first time ever due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. The league will allow up to 11,500 fans to attend each game. 

Game two of the series will be played tomorrow (Oct. 21), with games three, four and five (if necessary) set for Oct. 23-Oct. 25. If necessary, game six and seven will take place on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, respectively. 

Along with Fox broadcasting, MLB.TV subscribers will be able to stream the games live, while MLB Network will provide extensive live coverage of each game. 

The Dodgers will be making their third World Series appearance in the last four years, while the Tampa Bay Rays will be making their second appearance ever in the fall classic. The team lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008.  

The National Basketball Association will look to resume its post-season this weekend after postponing games Wednesday night in protest of the Aug. 23 police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, according to ESPN.com

It’s unclear when playoff games  will resume -- the league has three games scheduled Thursday night -- but players met Thursday morning in Orlando where the games are being played and voted to  continue its post-season schedule, ESPN reported.  

The website also reported a second meeting is scheduled Thursday afternoon to formulate action plans to address racial injustice issues and iron out details of restarting the postseason, with games airing on ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBATV.  

Along with the three postseason NBA games, three Major League Baseball games, three WNBA games and five Major League Soccer games were postponed Wednesday night in protest  over the Blake shooting. 

Amazon Studios has struck a first-look production deal with Grammy-winning artist Lizzo, the company announced Thursday during its virtual TCA press tour presentation. 

Lizzo appeared along with Amazon Studios co-television heads Albert Cheng and Vernon Sanders to announce the deal. Lizzo co-starred in the 2019 theatrical film Hustlers. 

“Lizzo is one of the most exciting, creative, joyful artists in the industry, and it is such a pleasure to announce this new deal with her,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios in a statement. “She has such a unique perspective and we’re so excited to hear her ideas for new content that our Prime Video customers are sure to love.”

In other Amazon Studios news, the company will develop a series version of the 1992 baseball film A League of Their Own, with Broad City's Abbi Jacobson starring and servicing as executive producer for the series along with Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle.) 

“There’s no crying in baseball, or at Prime Video,” said Sanders. “Will and Abbi have taken a classic movie, reimagining it for a new generation with new characters and their own fresh, modern vision on a timeless story of big dreams, friendship, love, and, of course, baseball. We’re so excited to partner with Sony to bring this emotional, exciting new series to our Prime Video customers around the world.”

Major League baseball took the first hit to its regular season start on Monday as two games were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Florida Marlins’ July 27 home opener against the Orioles was postponed after at least 14 Marlins players and staff tested positive for the virus, according to reports.

 The Marlins played a weekend series in Philadelphia against the Phillies. The team currently remains in its Philadelphia hotel pending further tests.

RELATED: Marlins Game Canceled as Players Test Positive 

Monday night's New York Yankees-Philadelphia Phillies game was also postponed after the league decided not to bring another club into the visiting clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park following the Marlins, according to reports.

The news puts a damper on an otherwise successful start of the season for baseball. Thursday night’s opening game between the Yankees and the Washington Nationals set a record ratings record for ESPN, averaging 4 million viewers.