Chicago baseball fans were caught in a trap when MLB released the schedule for the Cubs and White Sox wild-card series on Sunday. NBC has the rights to the first-round games, but Games 1 and 2 for the Cubs and Sox have been relegated to the network’s streaming service, Peacock and NBC Sports Network, which you may not have access to.
The media rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees – to which the nation is still subjected more than necessary – naturally earned the prime time slot on NBC live for the first two games of its series. The network will also broadcast the first two games of the Phillies-Braves series in the afternoon. The best-of-three wild-card series is scheduled to take place Tuesday through Thursday.
To watch Cubs-Padres and White Sox-Astros Games 1 and 2, fans must watch on Peacock, which costs $12.99 per month, or NBCSN, which is available on Comcast’s Xfinity system and streamers Fubo and YouTube TV. Although Xfinity and YouTube TV are two of the largest pay TV providers in the country, NBCSN is absent from services such as DirecTV and Astound/RCN.
For the Sox, Games 1 and 2 are scheduled for 4 p.m. For the Cubs, they are set at 9 a.m. The start time of a possible Game 3 of either series will depend on the number of series in progress.
These aren’t the first major postseason games blocked on a streamer. The NFL aired the Packers-Bears playoff game in January on Prime Video, but it was available locally live. The NBA broadcast 28 first- and second-round playoff games exclusively on Peacock (seven, also broadcast on NBCSN) and Prime Video (21) last season.
But these are the first MLB playoff games to be broadcast on a streaming service. It was part of NBC’s deal that gave him “Sunday Night Baseball,” which has aired on ESPN for 36 seasons, and the wild-card round. The rest of the American League playoffs will be broadcast on TBS; Fox and FS1 have the rest of the National League playoffs. The World Series will be broadcast on Fox.
Here’s some good news: NBC will continue to use local analysts for its national broadcasts. Steve Stone will be on the call for the Sox series, and Jim Deshaies will be in the booth for the Cubs series.
Gn sports
