The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) and the Australian Baseball League (ABL) today jointly announced that WBSC has been awarded international live-streaming rights for the 2020-2021 ABL season.
Through the partnership, games of Australia’s top-tier professional baseball league will be featured across WBSC’s official OTT and social media channels, including GameTime.Sport, Facebook and YouTube, for viewers outside Australia.
The global potential broadcast reach of the 2020-2021 ABL season, which opens tomorrow, is set to surpass a 100 million households, the most in the league’s history.
“Baseball is a year-round professional sport, and this strategic partnership will give baseball’s loyal fans around the world the access to the live, year-round content that they are demanding,” said WBSC President Riccardo FRACCARI. “Showcasing ABL’s premium and international appealing on-field product, which features exciting talent, will drive audiences to WBSC’s channels and not only boost ABL’s impressive projected viewership but also the overall global exposure of our sport.”
“The international reach combined with our domestic broadcast arrangements and the support of the Federal Government put the league in a really strong position,” Baseball Australia Chief Executive Cam VALE said. “Now, despite the challenges of COVID-19, we have the ability to fast-track 10 years of growth of our league in the space of 18 months.”
ABL, a WBSC Associate Member, has reached broadcast and/or live-streaming agreements with USA’s AT&T SportsNet, ROOT SPORTS, Cox Sports Television and For the Fans (previously Eleven Sports). Domestically, the ABL will be broadcast on Foxtel and streamed on Kayo Sports across Australia.
The ABL-WBSC coverage agreement also includes four Australian Women’s Baseball Showcase games, which will set the stage for the launch of the nation’s professional women’s baseball league.
Other recent landmark WBSC/GameTime rights agreements include the iconic Cuban Series Nacional Baseball Series, the Mexican Prospects League, the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League, Panama National Baseball League and the Taiwan Baseball5 Championships.
For ABL rosters, schedule, standings, statistics, news and play-by-play, visit https://theabl.com.au.
Australia is currently ranked sixth in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings.
