Marquee Sports Network, the new TV home of the Chicago Cubs, has announced a carriage agreement with Hulu’s live streaming service.
The deal is Marquee’s second with a live streaming service. Previously, the new regional sports channel secured a carriage pact with AT&T TV Now (also a live streamer) as well as traditional pay TV operators DIRECTV, U-verse, Mediacom and Charter.
However, Comcast, the largest pay TV provider in the Chicago market, has yet to sign on with the channel’s launch just five days away. The channel will premiere this Saturday with a spring training game between the Cubs and the Oakland Athletics.
Marquee replaces the previous providers of the Cubs games, which included NBC Sports Chicago and WGN. Marquee, which is owned by the Cubs and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, will feature 150 live Cubs games as well as pre-game and post-game shows, and other Cubs-related programming.
Marquee will be a regional sports network, meaning the Cubs live broadcasts will only be available in the team’s broadcast market which includes Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and parts of Wisconsin.
“We are thrilled to partner with Hulu and add them to our growing list of over 30 affiliates who will carry the network,” said Mike McCarthy, Marquee’s general manager. “We’ve heard from countless Hulu subscribers who were keenly interested to see their favorite baseball team. And now, they will!”
Marquee’s press release says that Hulu subscribers will be able to access the channel n a tablet, computer, laptop, mobile device or smart TV through the Hulu Live TV service.
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