Hulu’s live TV offering adds MLB Network as season opens

Ahead of Major League Baseball’s opening day, two notable carriage deals have been struck by virtual TV providers.

The largest is Hulu + Live TV, announcing it will carry the MLB Network as part of its regular lineup.

The addition of the network brings more than 100 MLB games from the channel over the course of the upcoming season. Subscribers will also gain access to the network’s other programming.

MLB Network is available to subscribers starting March 28, 2024.

Adding MLB Network rounds off Hulu’s vMVPD offering with a larger slate of MLB offerings. It already carries Fox, TBS and ESPN, the other major MLB rights holders.

Fubo, meanwhile, also announced a deal to carry the YES Network March 28. YES is the regional sports network built around the New York Yankees. 

The YES deal is more limited on a national basis because it only carries live Yankees games for viewers in New York, parts of New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Out of these markets, the subscribers will receive alternate programming.

Fubo also doesn’t carry TBS.

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Financial terms of the Hulu and Fubo deals were not announced. Neither service announced any immediate price hikes.

MLB Network is owned by Major League Baseball and TNT Sports, with small shares in the venture held by Charter, Cox and NBC Sports Group. 

YES is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group (which, in turn, is partnered with Entertainment Studios), Blackstone, RedBird Capital Partners, Amazon and Mubadala Investment Company.