After nearly two months without live sports to show, baseball is returning to American airwaves. You might need to have a DVR to watch it, though.
On Monday, it became official that ESPN will broadcast games from the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), according to a report by Jeeho Yoo.
ESPN had been interested in broadcasting in broadcasting games, but Yoo reported last month that those initial talks broke down after ESPN requested getting a free feed and doing monthly deals. ESPN also planned to drop KBO coverage if and when MLB resumed, so KBO league officials had little incentive to take the deal.
Terms of the new deal have not yet been released, though Yoo notes ESPN will cover the postseason and Korean Series, so it is likely much more favorable to the KBO.
ESPN will broadcast six games per week over six days, all of which will be live. Of course, the difference in time zones will make that difficult since South Korea is 13 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. That means many games will be broadcast in the wee hours of the morning. There has been no word yet on if these games will be rebroadcast at a more viewer-friendly hour, but night owls and early birds can catch some live baseball for the time being.
These are the games ESPN is broadcasting in the first week:
Upcoming #KBO schedule on #ESPN (all times EST)
May 5: NC Dinos vs. Samsung Lions (1 a.m.)
May 6: Doosan Bears vs. LG Twins (5:30 a.m.)
May 7: Dinos vs. Lions (5:30 a.m.)
May 8: Kia Tigers vs. Lions (5:30 a.m.)
May 9: Twins vs. Dinos (4 a.m.)
May 10: Twins vs. Dinos (1 a.m.)
— Jeeho Yoo (@Jeeho_1) May 4, 2020
