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After content lockdown, MLB expands YouTube partnership

After content lockdown, MLB expands YouTube partnership

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MLB YouTube stock 640
MLB YouTube stock 640

Major League Baseball and YouTube today announced a deeper partnership that will bring both the current season's highlights and older archival footage to the video streaming site. Additionally, the new agreement allows baseball fans outside the US, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan to watch two live games each day during the regular season. Anyone residing in those countries will need to stick to MLB.TV or cable to keep up with the live action on the field, however.

Highlights of 2013 games will typically be available "a day or two" after they're played, according to a post on YouTube's Google+ page. "Tens of thousands of hours" of archived games dating back to 1952 will also be streamable, as will programming from the "Baseball's Best Classic Moments" library. MLB Advanced Media first tried out the expanded-content approach with a YouTube channel that was limited to viewers in Australia, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, and Russia. Now those offerings are being extended to users across the globe. If nothing else, you'll have an easier time finding those great plays you want to see again. It beats relying on fan recordings, which typically fall to DMCA notifications in short order.