MLB London Series: MLB Network Efforts Ensure That BBC, BT Sport, Others Shine

Blend of network production team and local techs provide support for global rightsholders

Major League Baseball returns to London this weekend for two games between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals at London Stadium in Stratford/East London. Once again, MLB Network is onsite in a big way for both its own needs and in support of rightsholders around the globe.

“This is the second time we’ve been in London, and it’s just great,” says Susan Stone, SVP, operations/engineering, MLB Network. “It’s great to see baseball continue to grow the game internationally after the World Baseball Classic earlier this year, which was a success that I am also proud of.”

Jason Hedgcock, senior director, remote technical operations, MLB Network, notes that MLB Network is on hand at London Stadium in a dual role: “We’re doing our traditional support for our international rightsholders, and we’re also doing both our own studio-show coverage and game coverage for BBC here in the UK.”

The compound at London Stadium for this weekend’s MLB series between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals

Although most rightsholders from outside the U.S. have only some news crews onsite, both BT Sport and the BBC have larger needs that the MLB team is fulfilling for viewers across the UK.

“We have a new relationship with the BBC, which is very big as we’ve been producing some games that air on BBC since last season,” says Hedgcock. “This is an important market for baseball.”

Although MLB has flown in its production team, local technicians will play a big part in the effort. “We’re meeting a lot of great techs whose specialty is more rugby, football, and cricket so we’ve had a lot of conversations about what do you call this or that position and laying out camera plans,” adds Hedgcock. “The local technicians are just phenomenal and are incredibly dedicated, hard-working individuals. It’s very refreshing to see a passion like that for a sport that they’ve never covered, and we’ve even had tech managers volunteer to be utilities just so they could be part of it.”

For game production, the MLB Network will ride the host feeds from ESPN and Fox Sports for the international feed, with standards conversion the biggest technical challenge.

“The three production units for BT Sport and the BBC are all 1080/50i,” Hedgcock explains, “so we have a feeds truck that is jammed to the gills with standards-conversion gear. For transmission purposes, everything goes through that conversion trailer, which is provided by NEP.”

The BBC and BT Sport will bring their individual flair to the broadcasts via the on-air talent.

“We have a great relationship with MLB Network talent Melanie Newman and Xavier Scruggs [who are assigned to the BBC feed], and they will be broadcasting from the MLB booth, which will be exciting,” says Samantha Calastro, senior production manager/operations, MLB Network. “We’ll also have some fun with Felix White, who is a cricket podcaster and is also working with the BBC as we’re here on his home turf. He previously worked with us in New Jersey for the first BBC broadcast.”

BT Sport will have not only its main commentary area for the game but also a full presenter station with a desk located near the stadium plaza, Calastro says. “They can have rotating guests and offer coverage during the commercial breaks. They have three cameras out there, and the atmosphere is completely different.”

MLB Network will also have an on-field set, a big step up from 2019, when they had a chardonnay table. “We’re going to have a great presence,” she says. “That’s really exciting.”

The biggest change since 2019 has been the growth in the way the BBC and BT Sport cover the game.

Adds Calastro, “We learned so much in 2019, where it was all hands on deck with ESPN and Fox to just make it work. Now it’s refreshing to have an idea of what we need to do, and everything is much more efficient.”

In addition to the programming efforts, MLB Network will support all of the league’s technology initiatives, such as replay, says Stone. “We need to make sure the instant-replay team has access to the same resources it would have if it was at The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.”

From left: Lauren Shehadi, Robert Flores, and Mark DeRosa are onsite in London for MLB Network studio coverage of this year’s MLB London Series between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

MLB Network began broadcasting from London yesterday morning at 9 a.m. Its morning program, MLB Central — featuring Robert Flores, Mark DeRosa, and Lauren Shehadi — was live from Home Run House, a bar near London Stadium. This morning, the show moved to London Stadium itself and added new MLB Network analyst Albert Pujols to the talent mix.

MLB Tonight will be live on Saturday, June 24 at noon ET and on Sunday, June 25 at 9 a.m. and again at 7 p.m. Lauren Gardner and Bo Porter will host the Saturday edition; Matt Yallof and Porter, the Sunday-morning edition; Greg Amsinger and Yonder Alonso, the Sunday-night edition. Correspondent hits from London will be incorporated into the MLB Tonight programs.

Additional credits for the rest of the team:

Stephanie Perone, Director, Remote Technology Operations
Jason LaManna, Technical Manager
Chris Pfeiffer, VP, Live Events
Adam Helfgott, Supervising Producer
Ben Friedfeld, Coordinating Producer, Field Production
Walter Lee, Acquisitions Manager
Jeff Hendrick, Manager, Technical Direction
Marc Caiafa, SVP, Production
Ryan Sullivan, Game Producer
Jason Lobb, Game Director
Kelly Whritenour, Media Management Specialist
Kristen Wendland, Senior Director, League Projects
Daryl Martins, Director, International Programming and Ops (MLB)