MLB Tokyo Series 2025: MLB Network Assists FOX Sports, Marquee Sports Network With Remote Productions of Opening Series With Spectrum SportsNet LA onsite, NEP mobile units and BitFire send feeds to L.A. and Chicago By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 10:39 am
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For the second consecutive season, Major League Baseball is ringing the opening bell of its 2025 regular season overseas. This time, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs square off in the Land of the Rising Sun. The two-game MLB Tokyo Series at the Tokyo Dome is the result of the broadcast operations and production efforts of MLB Network, which is onsite and sending feeds to FOX Sports in Los Angeles and Marquee Sports Network in Chicago.
The work with NEP and BitFire has been great, says Jason Hedgcock, senior director, technical production and special projects, MLB. I can't speak highly enough of how well our partnerships have been here in Japan across the board. This is proving to be a very sustainable model for our international games.
International Affair: Crew Learns From 2023 World Baseball Classic in Korea MLB has made it a habit to play a handful of early-season games in another country. Prior to MLB Network's debut in 2009, the league played two games in the Tokyo Dome in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 seasons. In 2012, two games between the Seattle Mariners and the then Oakland Athletics marked a return to Tokyo. Seven years later, the same two clubs met at the Tokyo Dome again for a pair of contests in 2019.
Tokyo Dome is hosting a two-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed production and operational workflows forever, and, when the league returned to the Asia-Pacific region last year for two games between the San Diego Padres and Dodgers, cloud-based solutions and remote-production models were routinely deployed. The MLB Seoul Series at Gocheok Sky Dome in 2024 gave the team a good idea what to expect, but the attractions of the Dodgers' Shoehi Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and recently signed Roki Sasaki and the Cubs' Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki promise a much larger an endeavor this year.
It's similar from a technical perspective, says Hedgcock, but this is one of the first stadiums that's sold out and full of fans on workout days. Everyone is really excited for these events, so everything has been ramped up.
To prepare for the event, MLB Network's operations team and the league's global event staff began the planning phase earlier than usual. Site surveys were conducted while the team was in Seoul last year, but, later in 2024, laying out the project's logistics hit another level.
We had an idea as the season headed into the summer, says Samantha Calastro, senior production manager, MLB Network. It was a packed international season last year [with two games in Mexico City and two games in London], and it was tough approaching both the Dodgers and Cubs about next year before last year's postseason. We had to work on our feet and had to adapt because things changed before we even got onsite.
Play-by-play announcer Alex Cohen (left) and analyst Jim Deshaies (right) interview Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer in the booth during Tuesday's game.
In addition to the league's deep history with hosting regular-season games in other countries, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) has provided a platform to test out workflows on a grand scale. None of this was more evident than in the 2023 edition of the tournament. From stateside productions at Chase Field in Phoenix and LoanDepot Park in Miami to international contests at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan, and Tokyo Dome, the league and MLB Network spanned the globe to bring each game to fans in the U.S. and beyond.
I've been lucky. Most of my background lately has been on our international games, adds Calastro. But you can go to the same country two years in a row, and it's completely different. Tokyo feels completely different than when we did games for the World Baseball Classic. it's very challenging but very rewarding.
Long-Haul Transmission: NEP Japan, BitFire Ship Video Feeds to the States With both FOX Sports and the Chicago Cubs' designated regional sports network, Marquee Sports Network, opting for a remote production, the most complex portion of the world-feed operation is getting the respective broadcasters' video feeds of the game. During the leadup to the event, two factors played a key role: the packed lower bowl during workout days allowed the crew to test out the RF connectivity for game day, and four scrimmages against Nippon Professional Baseball opponents - the Dodgers vs. the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers on Saturday, March 15, the Cubs vs. the Tigers on Friday, March 14 and the Giants on Sunday, March 16 - gave the MLB Network team much-needed reps with host broadcaster Nippon TV.
NEP Japan provided three mobile units for the onsite teams of MLB Network and Spectrum SportsNet LA.
The front bench works a little differently in Japan than it does in the U.S., says Hedgcock. For example, they don't count down to when they go to break, so we're trying to explain that to our broadcast partners.
This is done not only for FOX Sports' team in Los Angeles and Marquee Sports Network's staff in Chicago but also for Spectrum SportsNet LA's onsite team. Hedgcock, Calastro, and the rest of their team communicate with these entities and, on the transmission side, work with BitFire to send video feeds from Tokyo Dome to the desired destinations.
We've shipped some BitFire servers to SNLA and Marquee Sports Network since FOX Sports already has them in their facility
