MLB’s streaming strategy looks like a winner.
On Tuesday, July 19th, Major League Baseball will play its annual All-Star Game. First played in 1933, the MLB All-Star Game is the first game of its kind played during the height of the regular season. Since then, both the NHL and NBA have utilized similar strategies to showcase their top talent to a national and now worldwide audience.
Much has been written about the issues that plague MLB when it comes to growing the game. While there are multiple fingers to point in multiple directions, one place that MLB seems to have gained a decent foothold is in the category of growing it’s branded streaming network, MLB.TV. According to the 2022 Study of Sports Fans done by SBRnet, MLB has the best ratio of fans that subscribe to the league branded streaming service than the other major sports leagues. According to Neil Schwartz, SBRnet’s Chief Data Officer, “MLB fans that subscribe to MLB.TV have the ability to choose the games they watch rather than allowing the other streaming services to choose for them.” Schwartz adds, “the big question remains if MLB can find a way to leverage this aspect of MLB.TV to help them grow younger fans via other streaming choices. That remains to be seen.
