Amazon is expanding its sports media footprint with a new deal to stream New York Yankees baseball games this season.
The Seattle tech giant will stream 21 Yankees games on Prime Video later this year. The live MLB content will be free for Prime members, but only available to those in the Yankees “home-team footprint”: New York state, Connecticut, northeast Pennsylvania, and north and central New Jersey.
The games will be simulcasts produced by YES Network. Last year, the Yankees, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Amazon, and other partners acquired the 80 percent stake of the YES Network not already owned by the Yankees from Disney.
The YES Network (The Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network) is the most-watched regional sports network, broadcasting games for the Yankees (MLB), Brooklyn Nets (NBA), New York City FC (MLS) and the New York Liberty (WNBA).
Amazon has invested heavily in streaming media for several years via its Prime Video arm and is increasingly gobbling up live sports rights. It paid the NFL millions to acquire the streaming rights for Thursday Night Football and inked a similar deal for Premier League Soccer. Amazon also produces the All or Nothing sports documentaries available to Prime members and hired longtime ESPN executive Marie Donoghue in 2018.
Amazon’s video business also includes the company’s Prime video library and its Amazon Studios production unit.
The Yankees games on Prime Video will feature Amazon’s “X-Ray” technology, which allows fans to access real-time stats, player details, and more information while they watch.
“We want to give Prime members access to the broadest selection of content across the broadest number of devices, and this deal gives Prime Video the opportunity to work with the top regional sports network in America and one of the most beloved franchises in all of sports,” Donoghue said in a statement Tuesday.
Amazon already streams MLB games on Prime Video, but through the MLB.TV app that requires a separate subscription package.
Here are the Yankees games that will be streamed by Amazon:
- Friday, April 17 Cincinnati 7:00 pm
- Tuesday, April 21 @Detroit 6:30 pm
- Saturday, April 25 Cleveland 1:00 pm
- Friday, May 8 Boston 7:00 pm
- Friday, May 15 @Houston 8:00 pm
- Friday, May 22 Seattle 7:00 pm
- Saturday, May 23 Seattle 1:00 pm
- Wednesday, May 27 Minnesota 7:00 pm
- Sunday, June 21 @Minnesota 2:00 pm
- Wednesday, June 24 Baltimore 7:00 pm
- Tuesday, June 30 @Baltimore 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, July 22 Angels 7:00 pm
- Friday, July 24 Boston 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, July 29 @Mets 7:00 pm
- Monday, August 10 @Kansas City 8:00 pm
- Friday, August 21 Toronto 7:00 pm
- Friday, August 28 @Cleveland 7:00 pm
- Thursday, September 10 Boston 7:00 pm
- Sunday, September 20 @Toronto 1:00 pm
- Wednesday, September 23 Houston 7:00 pm
- Friday, September 25 Tampa Bay 7:00 pm