ESPN announced it reached an agreement with Eclat Media Group to exclusively televise six, live regular-season Korean Baseball Championship (KBO) League games per week. KBO is South Korea’s most popular sports league, and Opening Day will begin Monday night, May 4, at 10 p.m. PT.
As part of the agreement, ESPN will become the exclusive English-language home for KBO League live games and highlights for the 2020 season. The deal includes the postseason and the Korea Series best-of-seven championship.
ESPN’s game selections will be made and announced on a week-to-week basis during the season. The telecast schedule and ESPN platform is subject to change pending future live event considerations.
“We’re thrilled to become the exclusive English-language home to the KBO League and to showcase its compelling action and high-level of competition,” ESPN executive vice president of programming Burke Magnus said.
“We have a longstanding history of documenting the game of baseball and we’re excited to deliver these live events to sports fans.”
In addition to televising the live games, ESPN will also have its own remote commentators, including Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez, Jessica Mendoza and Kyle Peterson. Additionally, the network will air highlights from KBO League games nightly on SportsCenter.
“The KBO League is one of the greatest baseball leagues with world-class players and many exciting initiatives. During this unprecedented and difficult time, I hope the KBO League can bring consolation to the communities and provide guidelines to the world of sports,” KBO commissioner Un-Chan Chung said.
“I am pleased that the KBO League can be introduced globally and hope this can be an opportunity for the development of our league and the sport.”
For Los Angeles Dodgers fans looking for a team to root for, Hyun-Jin Ryu played seven seasons for the Hanwha Eagles. The Doosan Bears are the league’s reigning champions and have won three of the last five.
Their roster features Jose Miguel Fernandez, whom the Dodgers signed out of Cuba in 2017 but released less than a year later.
The first week of games on ESPN features the NC Dinos against the Samsung Lions Tuesday at 10 p.m. PT, Bears against the LG Twins on Wednesday at 2:30 a.m. PT, Dinos against Lions on Thursday at 2:30 a.m. PT, KIA Tigers against Lions on Friday at 2:30 a.m. PT, and finally Twins against Dinos on both Saturday at 1 a.m. PT and 10 p.m. PT.
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