Sony Corporation announced yesterday plans to stream live out-of-market Major League Baseball games over the Internet via the league’s MLB.TV subscription service to its PlayStation 3 consoles to expand its online offerings and attract users other than gamers.
Sony is preparing an update for the console software to enable streaming on its existing machines for North American PS3 owners, the company said in a release. The streaming deal is Major League Baseball’s first such agreement with a video-game company, according to the New York Times, and Sony’s first for the PS3. The two companies will split revenues, the newspaper said, without giving further details.
PlayStation Network online service customers will be able to gain access to the existing MLB.TV package, which includes hundreds of baseball games — excluding local team games and others that are broadcast on TV — for an annual fee. MLB’s internet package is the No. 1 most-profitable video-streaming service on the web, according to CNET.
The MLB.TV subscription package is already accessible on some cellphones and web-stream devices, some of those favoured by other sports leagues. National Hockey League games were recently made available via subscription on Boxee, a media centre software that allows users to watch TV programs and movies on personal computers, according to a posting on Boxee’s official blog. The National Basketball Association offers game highlights and statistics free on Roku, Netflix’s streaming receiver box.
