Live Major League Baseball Slides Into PlayStation 3

By Geoff Duncan April 22, 2010

Sony has announced PlayStation 3 owners can now watch live out-of-market Major League Baseball games via the Internet using a new MLB.TV application for the PlayStation network. The application will be available to PS3 owners in the United States and Canada, and will enable MLB.TV subscribers to tap into high-definition feeds of live games via their gaming console—and the app isn’t just boring MLB.TV, it has new features exclusively for the PS3. The application is available now from the Media section of the PlayStation STore.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The deal is Sony’s latest move to make the PlayStation gaming console a hub for a number of types of entertainment, not just video games. Already consumers are familiar with the console as a Blu-ray disc player, and many PS3 customers (about 9 million of the 12 million PS3 owners in the U.S., according to Sony) also connect their consoles to the Internet, potentially to tap into online video content via the PlayStation Network.

The Major League Baseball deal is the league’s first content distribution agreement with a game console manufacturer—financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. MLB.TV subscribers will be able to access high-definition live feeds of regular season games—subject to local blackouts. The MLB.TV application also features an interactive scoreboard for that days’ games, DVR-like functionality to pause and rewind live games, access to a season archive, a scrollable linescore so users can hop to any half-inning point in a game, along with team schedules.

MLB.TV requires a separate annual subscription priced at $99.95 or $119.95.

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