MLB was the first sports league to live stream a regular season fixture in 2002, an anniversary it recently celebrated, and the first to stream a complete regular season, as reported by Sports Pro Media.

Its MLB.TV direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform recorded more than 11.5 billion minutes of watched game action during the 2022 regular season - the first time it has surpassed the 11 billion milestone.

The figure represented a 9.8 per cent increase on the volume of content consumed least year.

The five most-watched games ever and nine of the ten most-watched games ever all took place this year.

MLB and Google Cloud have worked together since 2020, with the baseball league making use of the tech giant’s range of cloud-based technologies.

The latest extension will see MLB pilot Google Cloud’s Media content delivery network (CDN), which uses the same infrastructure as YouTube.

Media CDN promises optimisation for streaming video and large file downloads, which MLB believes will give it the scale, security and performance required to enhance its live and archive content and pave the way for more engaging content.

Beyond infrastructure, MLB will benefit from Google’s artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data analytics capabilities.

These will provide MLB with real-time insights to optimise the viewing experience, and also simplify the process of tagging its vast archive.

Fans will find it easier to find their favourite moments, while AI models will recommend content as it learns more about each user.

"MLB has been a clear leader in digital media for decades, bringing unforgettable moments to homes, offices, and fans across the world for the last 20 years," said Thomas Kurian, chief executive at Google Cloud.

"We look forward to starting the next chapter of our partnership with the league to further advance its media offerings for years to come by using our data-driven capabilities, AI and ML, and secure global infrastructure."