YouTube will stream 13 MLB games this season

YouTube just landed a major deal with one of America's most popular sports leagues.

The video streaming service announced today a new deal with Major League Baseball to exclusively livestream 13 games for the 2019 season, according to Variety.

The games will be broadcast live on YouTube at the MLB’s official channel page and will be free to watch. YouTube TV subscribers will also be able to watch the games on that platform as well.

MLB will produce the 13 exclusive games specifically for the YouTube audience. The games will feature pre-game and post-game shows and will include appearances from YouTube creators.

The 13 games are still to be determined. YouTube’s exclusivity rights to the games extend to U.S., including Puerto Rico, and Canada. The announcement confirms that they will not air on network TV in those markets or even on the MLB’s own subscription service, MLB.TV.

This isn’t the first time that YouTube and the MLB have teamed up. For years, a partnership between the video channel and the baseball league has brought game highlights and classic games to the platform. YouTube TV also features the MLB Network on its channel lineup. YouTube’s subscription television service has also been a World Series sponsor since 2017.

Facebook previously struck a deal for exclusive MLB games back in 2017. Last year, the social network landed exclusive streaming rights to 25 games to air on Facebook Watch. However, the company will only stream 6 games with non-exclusive rights this year. Twitter also has a non-exclusive streaming rights deal with MLB as well.

Live sports programming has been cable TV’s saving grace when it comes to cord cutters. But, with more tech companies exploring partnerships with some of the biggest leagues and franchises, it’s unclear how much longer cable providers can rely on sports.