Though Major League Baseball is shut down, you’ll be able to watch live baseball action tonight/tomorrow on ESPN, as the broadcaster reaches a deal to televise South Korea’s KBO League games on a daily broadcast.
With South Korea allowing sports to resume (without fans or spitting), the KBO League season begins at 1 a.m. ET tomorrow morning / 10 p.m. PT tonight with the NC Dinos taking on the Samsung Lions. The deal between ESPN and the Eclat Media Group calls for ESPN2 to televise six, live regular-season games per week in the United States. One game will air each day, Tuesday through Sunday, generally on ESPN2 and on the ESPN App. The telecasts will air Tuesdays-Fridays at 5:30 a.m. ET, Saturdays at 4 a.m. ET and Sundays at 1 a.m. ET.
ESPN play-by-play voices, analysts and reporters will provide commentary in English, remotely, from their home studios. ESPN baseball commentators contributing to KBO League coverage include Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez, Jessica Mendoza and Kyle Peterson. The team of Ravech and Perez will call the Lions vs. Dinos season-opener, as well as the May 6 and May 7 games.
As part of the agreement, ESPN will become the exclusive English-language home for KBO League live games and highlights for the 2020 season. The deal includes the postseason and the Korea Series best-of-seven championship. ESPN’s game selections will be made and announced on a week-to-week basis during the season.
“We’re thrilled to become the exclusive English-language home to the KBO League and to showcase its compelling action and high-level of competition,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president, programming. “We have a longstanding history of documenting the game of baseball and we’re excited to deliver these live events to sports fans.”
In addition to the game telecasts, ESPN will also air highlights from KBO League games within its news and information programming, including SportsCenter.