Major League Baseball has secured multi-year deals with OTT services DAZN to provide live coverage of regular season and postseason games in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and also VEQTA to provide similar coverage in India.
For VEQTA in India, it will be able to stream 20 games per week this season and is able to select one game per three-hour window, according to Sports Video Group.
“Revenue is always an important piece. But, at the same time, when you’re dealing in markets like India that are less traditional baseball markets, getting with partners, driving interest in the game, and having a partner like Veqta that is going to be engaged in some of the grassroots and promotional activity that we are in the stages of planning is paramount,” Dominick Balsamo, MLB Vice President, International Media Sales, told SVG.
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MLB and VEQTA will launch a variety of initiatives together to build the sport further in India, as the league is looking to expand its footprint overseas to new fans.
“Baseball has a niche audience here and we wish to grow it further,” Vikram Tanwar, Co-founder & Director of VEQTA, said in a statement. “Through this partnership, Indian baseball fans will have access to exclusive baseball content not available in its entirety on any other platform. VEQTA is proud to bring this experience to India and assert our commitment to offer the best sports content from across the globe to Indian fans.”
DAZN, meanwhile, has a deal over the next four seasons, for more than 600 games each season. It kicked off the coverage with the Arizona Diamondbacks hosting the San Francisco Giants on April 2.
“DAZN is already known as the home of US sports with our extensive live and on demand coverage of NFL, NBA and NHL and that’s why we’re delighted to add MLB to our portfolio,” DAZN Chief Commercial Officer John Gleasure said in a statement. “Now fans can watch all the major US sports wherever and whenever they want, all for one affordable price.”