Prior to the start of the 2020 season, Amazon Prime Video partnered with the New York Yankees and YES Network with plans to air 21 Yankees games this season. The games which would have also aired locally on WPIX, would have been at no additional cost to Prime members in the local area.
However, as a result of the shortened MLB season due to COVID-19, the Yankees and Amazon announced that it won’t happen after all. Since there are only 60 games this season (instead of 162), all locally televised games will be made available on YES Network.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Amazon said: “Given the unique circumstances surrounding this season, YES Network will televise all New York Yankees games not airing on the national networks. We’ll evaluate our plans at the conclusion of this season.”
Reports that the Yankees were looking to partner up with Amazon first came out back in December. First, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said teams had “approved unanimously a revised interactive media rights agreement.” The goal for the revised agreement “was the return of certain in-market digital rights — the rights that have essentially become substitutional with broadcast rights — those rights will return to the clubs.”
For Yankees fans, the only way to stream games locally this season are with Hulu Live TV and AT&T TV NOW. This is after YouTube TV, fuboTV, and Sling TV each dropped YES Network prior to the start of the season.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Sign Up | Free Trial | Get 50% Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| YES Network | + $29 | ✓ | - | - | - | - | - | |