Apple is stepping up to the plate with its first live sports broadcasts Friday, set to debut “Friday Night baseball” on Apple TV Plus — and, for a limited time, the MLB livestreams will be free for anyone in the U.S. and eight other countries.
The games on Apple TV Plus — which will be about 50 per season — are available to anyone with internet access, for free for a limited time without the need for a subscription to the streaming service (regularly $4.99/month). “Friday Night baseball” will be available on devices where Apple TV Plus is available, including on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K and HD, and on tv.apple, along with smart TVs, gaming consoles and select cable set-top boxes.
Produced by MLB Network in partnership with Apple, “Friday Night baseball” will be available on Apple TV Plus in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the U.K.; the tech giant says it will expand the MLB livestreams to other countries in the future.
Apple announced the deal with MLB to exclusively offer the Friday games last month, coming after ESPN dropped broadcast rights to weekday baseball games.
Here’s how to watch “Friday Night baseball” on the Apple TV app:
- Make sure that your devices are updated with the latest software; if you’re accessing the service using a smart TV, streaming device or game console, you might need to set up the Apple TV app first.
- Open the Apple TV app and navigate to the “Apple TV+” tab.
- At the top of the page, tap or click “Friday Night baseball.” (You might need to swipe left to find it.)
- From there, you can start streaming a live game.
Apple noted that pause, fast forward, rewind and other playback controls aren’t available with “Friday Night baseball.”
Ahead of the first doubleheader on April 8, Apple announced the lineup of broadcasters and production enhancements for “Friday Night baseball.”
The broadcast team of Melanie Newman (play-by-play), Chris Young (analyst), Hannah Keyser (analyst) and Brooke Fletcher (reporter) will call the New York Mets at the Washington Nationals game (starting at 7 p.m. ET. Stephen Nelson (play-by-play), Hunter Pence (analyst), Katie Nolan (analyst) and Heidi Watney (reporter) will call the Houston Astros vs. Los Angeles Angels matchup starting at 9:30 p.m. ET. In addition, “Friday Night baseball” will feature rules analysis and interpretation from former MLB umpire Brian Gorman.
Future game assignments for “Friday Night baseball” broadcasters will be announced on a weekly basis. Newman, a play-by-play announcer for the Baltimore Orioles, becomes the second woman to lead play-by-play duties for a national broadcast team. (The first was Jessica Mendoza in 2015 for ESPN.)
Apple’s live pre- and postgame coverage for “Friday Night baseball” will be hosted by Lauren Gardner, along with a rotating group of analysts and former MLB players, including Carlos Peña, Cliff Floyd and Yonder Alonso.
According to Apple, the “Friday Night baseball” broadcasts will incorporate new on-screen graphics that include new “probabilities-based forecasts” of different situational outcomes, plus highlights and live look-ins from around the league. In the MLB livestreams, viewers will see on-screen callouts about batters’ walk-up songs from Apple Music and will be able to test their knowledge of baseball trivia with help from Siri, Apple’s voice assistant.
On Thursdays, Apple will stream “Countdown to First Pitch” for a preview of each week’s upcoming games. Apple TV Plus also will host the “MLB Daily Recap” with highlights from across the league as well as the “MLB Big Inning” whip-around show featuring live look-ins and in-game highlights every weeknight. In addition, fans will be able to watch full games and condensed game replays, on demand on Apple TV Plus after the completion of the live broadcasts each week.
As you would expect, Apple is promoting “Friday Night baseball” on its other digital properties. Apple News on Fridays will include a curated group of highlights and stories from around the league; from those, users can tap to watch “Friday Night baseball” directly in the Apple TV app. Apple Music will feature playlists of batters’ walk-up songs from MLB teams playing in each of the Friday games as well as a collection of classic songs celebrating baseball.
