With a little more than a week before the 2021 MLB season begins, Comcast Xfinity Flex is adding the MLB app and the MLB.TV streaming service.
Existing MLB.TV subscribers can say “MLB app” into their Xfinity Voice Remote to launch the app and log in. New customers can subscribe to any one of MLB.TV’s three packages on www.mlb.com/flex. The service offers out-of-market MLB games for either $129.99 for the full package or $24.99 per month. There’s also a $109.99 package designed around games for a single team.
MLB.TV also includes a programming library including baseball highlights, interviews, features, documentaries and classic games from MLB and MLB Network.
MLB.TV is coming to Flex about one month after announcing its launch on YouTube TV.
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MLB.TV is hoping to bounce back this year after having to shell out refunds in 2020 due to a pandemic-shortened season. Sportico calculated that, based on a Parks Associates’ estimate putting MLB.TV at about 3.5 million subscribers in 2019, that the service gave back more than $200 million to subscribers.
Flex is Comcast’s streaming video platform/hardware for its broadband-only subscribers. CEO Brian Roberts said as of late February his company has deployed more than 3 million Flex boxes. He praised Flex for its video service aggregation capabilities and its ability to reduce churn by about 15% to 20% among customers who engage with the platform
“We’re at about 50% engagement with the people who have Flex so that’s an opportunity to increase that engagement and take advantage of the fact that they then think more highly of the company and churn less,” Roberts said.
Comcast will be making more announcements this year about Flex and streaming aggregation.