MLB Network has just introduced playoff baseball to a worldwide audience in unprecedented fashion. On Saturday, MLB Network aired seven distinct game broadcasts, spanning all four postseason games, for fans all around the globe, from the United States to Europe to India.
The Rangers-Orioles, Twins-Astros, Phillies-Braves, and D-backs-Dodgers Division Series games were all televised by the BBC in England. The two National League games were televised in Spanish for US audiences. The Phillies-Braves game was also carried on STAR India.
“It’s for the fan,” said MLB Network senior vice president of production Marc Caiafa. “In each respective country, whether it’s England or India or for our Spanish-speaking audience here in America, we just want to make sure they’re getting the essence of what the game is about.”
The whole operation was run from the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, on an unprecedented day of games for the Network. For the seven game broadcasts, every studio was in operation. The project involves hundreds of individuals.
“There’s just a lot of excitement in the building.” “It’s a lot of fun,” said MLB Network Vice President of Live Events Chris Pfeiffer. “I think it’s exciting for our viewers around the world to get a really good taste of our game.”
The day began with the Rangers defeating the Orioles in the first of four BBC games, which were televised in March Madness-style from MLB Network’s Studio 21, with a varied announcing staff that included Orioles announcer Melanie Newman, MLB Network’s Xavier Scruggs, and Felix White for the BBC.
“It’s been really cool to see a lot of the British fans reaching out to us on social media, and they’re telling us where they have watch parties set up, or that they’re going to be out at all these pubs after work watching it,” said Newman, who was also one of the BBC’s London Series commentators this season.
“We’ve given them some of history’s most formidable foes.” We’ve shown the Red Sox-Yankees game and the Cardinals-Cubs game. That happened right in their own backyard. Now comes the potential to go to the playoffs, which is as exciting as some of those rivalries. I believe that for supporters who are still seeking for a team to identify with as a fan, this may be the time.”
Not only did multiple announcing crews split the games in Studio 21 (MLB Network’s Robert Flores and Jake Peavy joined White for two of the games), but MLB Network also brought in two auxiliary Game Creek Nitro video trucks outside the studio to help transmit the games.
“It’s a unique opportunity for us to take the two sides of MLB Network — our remote side and our studio side — and create a single entity out of those two groups to really push the game for our emerging fanbases,” MLB Network senior director of remote technical operations Jason Hedgcock said. “If you’re trying to pick who’s going to showcase baseball to emerging fanbases in India, the U.K., or anywhere, using the level of expertise that we have here really helps drive that product home.”
The BBC broadcasts of MLB postseason games – which will continue through the playoffs, including World Series Game 1 – cap off a year of growth for baseball in England, which began with Great Britain’s participation in the World Baseball Classic and included the return of the London Series for the first time since 2019.
“This is the pinnacle event of what’s been a really significant year for us,” said MLB Europe managing director Ben Ladkin, who was at MLB Network on Saturday to assist with the BBC broadcasts. “What we want to do is simply allow people to immerse themselves throughout the day.” It’s the most ambitious project we’ve done with the BBC, who have been fantastic partners in helping us construct the game.”
The domestic Spanish-language broadcasts on MLB Network went live for the two late games, when the Braves hosted the Phillies and the Dodgers hosted the D-backs in the two NLDS Game 1s, while the BBC coverage continued throughout the day at the studio.
Those broadcasts, which will continue through the National League Division Series and League Championship Series, will feature veteran MLB Network announcing teams, including Fernando lvarez, Candy Maldonado, Carlos Pea, Yonder Alonso, and Clemson Smith Muiz, who will all call games from the MLB Network studios.
“When we’re on air calling the games in Spanish, I get to share my love for the game, my observations and my insight and experience with the Latino community, with the Spanish-speaking community, in our own native language,” Pea went on to say. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to share that passion for the game with the Latino, Spanish-speaking audience.” It is not something I take lightly. And it comes with a lot of responsibility. Because the crowd is so knowledgable about baseball, it really encourages me to give it my all.”
To reach a worldwide audience with its seven-game day, MLB Network does more than merely broadcast on overseas TV networks like the BBC or STAR India. Spanish-language broadcasts, which target fans in the United States with a Latin American background, are also part of that endeavor.
“That’s the great thing about the Spanish-language broadcasts — they’re providing for domestic U.S. fans who may be Spanish-speaking only, they now have access to a game that’s native Spanish with Spanish graphics, here available on U.S. providers,” he added.
Hedgcock was part in two months of technical preparation that went into preparing this one day of games at the Network studios. All of that preparation paid off on Saturday.
The Phillies-Braves coverage for STAR India was one of the most unusual features of MLB Network’s day of foreign playoff baseball. MLB and MLB Network have worked with STAR India to air a few other Major League games this season, but the first postseason broadcast shows the sport’s continuous rise in India.
The configuration for STAR India broadcasts differs from that of BBC and Spanish Language broadcasts. Analysts Tejas Goradia, Manish Batavia, and Aayush Sharma are all in India, while play-by-play announcer Jacob Wilkins is in studio at MLB Network (yet another studio occupied on Saturday).
MLB Network is leveraging cloud provider Spalk to link all of the individual broadcasters as well as the television stream itself.
“Our technical team is extremely creative in terms of the innovations they are able to find in order to accomplish this.” They adore it. “You throw a challenge at them, and they go all in,” said Susan Stone, SVP of operations and engineering at MLB Network. “What excites us all is introducing the game to new markets and contributing to the game’s international growth.” But also the team and community that we’ve built here, and how we’ve been able to transfer it into the success of a rather large effort.”
The Blue Jays picking Arjun Nimmala, who is of Indian heritage, in the first round this year was a significant event in raising the reputation of Major League Baseball in India, and the MLB Network broadcasts on STAR India will hopefully just add to that.
“Making baseball accessible to Indian fans is critical in our efforts to increase accessibility,” MLB India’s Ryo Takahashi stated. “To be able to do it with a specialized broadcast allows us to connect on a deeper level with the audience.”
On the one hand, MLB Network’s playoff broadcasts for fans in India and England, as well as Latin American fans in the United States, are just a tiny part of Major League Baseball’s attempts to expand the game abroad. On the other hand, if you were at Secaucus on Saturday, you could see how much work went into producing all those games.
“It begins and ends with the games, obviously, and showcasing them,” she added. “But it’s incredible for the location.” It’s fantastic to realize that we’re in charge of getting all of this material out.
“Our little place here in Secaucus — which really isn’t so little — the fact that it’s doing it for so many different markets, and now so many different countries, it’s special.”
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