iTunes Adds MLB.com Content

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Apple announced in a press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/03/30itunes.html) today that it will be offering Major League Baseball (MLB) video highlights for the 2007 season on the iTunes store. The content will include daily 25-minute "MLB.com Daily Rewind" highlight shows and two weekly "Games of the Week", which will be full-length games from the best games of the American and National leagues. Each Daily Rewind and Game of the Week will be available for the iTunes video standard price of $1.99. Discounted monthly Multi-Pass ($7.99) and Season passes ($13.99) are also available.

"We're thrilled to be teaming with iTunes to give baseball fans access to MLB highlights via the world’s most popular online TV store," said Kenny Gersh, senior vice president, business development of MLB Advanced Media. "We’re excited that baseball fans now have the opportunity to enjoy America’s favorite pastime in a unique way by taking MLB with them on their computers and iPods wherever they go."

"iTunes has become the ultimate destination for accessing top sports video content and now our customers will be able to enjoy America's favorite pastime whenever and wherever," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "By offering a 25 minute daily highlight show we're giving millions of fans a great way to enjoy action from their favorite team and catch up on all the top plays from around the league."

Other MLB.com content being added includes "MLB.com Baseball's Best" series showcasing classic baseball games from the past. Individual episodes of "MLB.com Baseball's Best" will be available for $1.99. There will also be a "MLB.com 2007 Season Preview Show" available for a free download.

[twoodcc]

great news! i think this will make many baseball fans on this forum happy as well.

i'm glad that apple puts most of the sports on itunes....i love sports

[longofest]

I say meh... i like sports, but I like sports in real-time. I don't know about watching a sports game AFTER it has happened.

[Neb154]

14 dollars for a season worth of MLB highlights and such would be a steal

[furcalchick]

14 bucks for a whole season of highlights?! i may be tempted to actually buy it (i usually don't browse itunes, but i'll make an exception in this case, as espn seems to spend half of their shows focusing on new york teams and the precious red sox, that we don't get to hear about much else.). i was skeptical at first, but seeing that low price for full season highlights, i'm willing to take the offer and finally watch a good highlight show.

i wonder if my first gen nano can take the highlights via the hack.

and with the directv deal and such (i'm a directv customer, so doesn't affect me), i think we'll see alot of people buy the season package.

[tvguru]

US only I would guess?

Love to have this one in Canada

[furcalchick]

US only I would guess?

Love to have this one in Canada

needs to be in canada, because there is a franchise up there too, the blue jays. needs to be us and canada for this to fully work, otherwise we see a big backlash from our friends up north.

and it seems not to be up at the store yet (referring to the free season preview). any knowledge of when it will be up?

[slu]

14 bucks for a whole season of highlights?! i may be tempted to actually buy it (i usually don't browse itunes, but i'll make an exception in this case, as espn seems to spend half of their shows focusing on new york teams and the precious red sox, that we don't get to hear about much else.). i was skeptical at first, but seeing that low price for full season highlights, i'm willing to take the offer and finally watch a good highlight show.

i wonder if my first gen nano can take the highlights via the hack.

and with the directv deal and such (i'm a directv customer, so doesn't affect me), i think we'll see alot of people buy the season package.

What First Gen Nano hack?

[iKwick7]

great news! i think this will make many baseball fans on this forum happy as well.

i'm glad that apple puts most of the sports on itunes....i love sports

I'm very happy. :)

Honestly, this is very cool. I think I will be getting the season.

I thought it was very cool that they have TNA Wrestling on itunes now- too bad I don't care for wrestling anymore, but it's still nice to see it there.

[bluebomberman]

Sorry, fellow posters, but I'm one of those guys that only follows my team. Doesn't seem like they have any options for that on iTunes, sadly.

(And no, the Windows Media crap they peddle on MLB.com doesn't count.)

[Mgkwho]

Would the iTunes store ever do live streaming?

-=|Mgkwho

[TC2COOL]

Sweet. Now we just have to wait for opening day.

[MacNut]

Would the iTunes store ever do live streaming?

-=|MgkwhoNot of baseball games, MLB wants the money to themselves.

[furcalchick]

the season preview is up now. i'm going to see if this is any good, and perhaps mlb gets 14 bucks if their highlight show is any good.

[furcalchick]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Apple announced in a press release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/03/30itunes.html) today that it will be offering Major League Baseball (MLB) video highlights for the 2007 season on the iTunes store. The content will include daily 25-minute "MLB.com Daily Rewind" highlight shows and two weekly "Games of the Week", which will be full-length games from the best games of the American and National leagues. Each Daily Rewind and Game of the Week will be available for the iTunes video standard price of $1.99. Discounted monthly Multi-Pass ($7.99) and Season passes ($13.99) are also available.



Other MLB.com content being added includes "MLB.com Baseball's Best" series showcasing classic baseball games from the past. Individual episodes of "MLB.com Baseball's Best" will be available for $1.99. There will also be a "MLB.com 2007 Season Preview Show" available for a free download.

hmm..actually i haven't seen the 14 bucks offer anywhere else but here. i wonder if that's actually going to happen.

[mozmac]

I agree. Sports is more entertaining in real-time. I'd be willing to subscribe to a video podcast of highlights, but not pay for them. That's what SportsCenter is for. Of course, if you don't have cable, then this is what a hardcore MLB fan would like.

This falls right in line with Apple's strategy to destroy regular TV programming as we know it. If they had their way, everything would be on-demand.

Angels first game is this Monday! I'm very excited.

[thedude110]

I'll be happier if their Internet Radio service is vaguely OS X functional this year. Don't think I'd spend $14 for otherwise widely available highlights?

[furcalchick]

i would have preferred the highlight show to be free, but 14 bucks for a season isn't too bad. just don't overprice it to like 150 bucks for the whole year, i'm not paying that type of money for highlights, when i can just get mlb.tv at that cost.

[furcalchick]

I'll be happier if their Internet Radio service is vaguely OS X functional this year. Don't think I'd spend $14 for otherwise widely available highlights?

but espn's coverage is terrible as of late, they frequently cut out highlights of certain teams to show extended highlights of yankees/mets/red sox games.:mad:

14 dollars is a small price to pay for on demand highlights.

[BobbyDigital]

Sorry, fellow posters, but I'm one of those guys that only follows my team. Doesn't seem like they have any options for that on iTunes, sadly.

(And no, the Windows Media crap they peddle on MLB.com doesn't count.)

I'm with you on this one... I love my team (Detroit Tigers) and I will be moving to Milwaukee in July, so I won't get the Tigers' games on cable (and I don't want to pay a whole lot extra just to get a package from Comcast, I think you'd have to get digital cable for that).

I was thinking about doing the MLB.com thing, but the quality would not be very good, and I want to be able to watch these games on my TV!!! I hope Apple makes some sort of deal with all the sports teams at some point to allow the option to subscribe to a season pass of EVERY game! I would definitely pay for that.

[furcalchick]

one more thing, is daily rewind going to be available on mlb.com? because if it is, i'm less inclined to pay. but i have a feeling this is itunes exclusive.

[JackArc]

Great News!

[andrewsfish]

I ran across an add for this cool feature and tried to get the preview from itunes this morning. Sadly I get "The item you tried to buy is no longer available." Maybe there was an error they are fixing, but I was disappointed to see such a cool product and then to have the "free" preview not work.

[mi5moav]

How is this 2nd page news when it's real but an iPhone rumored date from an iPhone rumors blog makes it to page one?

[mixel]

Well, I'd assume; Firstly because this is MacRumors.. (not MacNews) Secondly because Baseball isn't all thay big a deal to either the Mac, or Apple.. iPhone is?

[Pittsax]

but espn's coverage is terrible as of late, they frequently cut out highlights of certain teams to show extended highlights of yankees/mets/red sox games.:mad:

14 dollars is a small price to pay for on demand highlights.

I totally agree. Someone seriously needs to go to the ESPN people and remind them what year the Yanks last won a championship* and get them all off of the collective jock of New York and Boston.

I don't know about this being available in Canada, but one of the few advantages to being here (entertainment wise) is that I can still get Extra Innings via cable.

*2000

[drshaws]

I'm with you on this one... I love my team (Detroit Tigers) and I will be moving to Milwaukee in July, so I won't get the Tigers' games on cable (and I don't want to pay a whole lot extra just to get a package from Comcast, I think you'd have to get digital cable for that).

I was thinking about doing the MLB.com thing, but the quality would not be very good, and I want to be able to watch these games on my TV!!! I hope Apple makes some sort of deal with all the sports teams at some point to allow the option to subscribe to a season pass of EVERY game! I would definitely pay for that.

I certainly second that. If AppleTV could display streaming MLB.TV, I'd be a happy camper. I'd even pay MLB.TV the $120 for the expensive 700K stream - right now the only reason I have cable is because the Red Sox are on NESN - a cable only channel - 95% of the time.

Mmm...$300 for an AppleTV + $120 for MLB.TV = $420/1st year, and only $120 next year (and onwards). Standard cable at $55/month is $660 a year, and I don't get any nice Apple hardware in that equation. Throw me a bone AppleTV!

[nbs2]

I suppose everything is market driven, but a season highlight video or even World Series highlight videos, I imagine, would sell really well. Being able to relive the championship seasons of your favorite teams would be great - and with the more recent years, all the editing work is already done...

[furcalchick]

hmm...still no daily rewind over at the store. i would have expected a show by now...anyone know when it's going to be up?

[tyson12zoll]

Baseball is the ONLY reason I still have dish network (other that contractual obligations :mad: )

AFAIK, there will have to be something groundbreaking from apple/mlb for me to ever be able to watch games in my area without cable due to the blackout restrictions of MLB.

[NorCalLights]

I certainly second that. If AppleTV could display streaming MLB.TV, I'd be a happy camper. I'd even pay MLB.TV the $120 for the expensive 700K stream - right now the only reason I have cable is because the Red Sox are on NESN - a cable only channel - 95% of the time.

Mmm...$300 for an AppleTV + $120 for MLB.TV = $420/1st year, and only $120 next year (and onwards). Standard cable at $55/month is $660 a year, and I don't get any nice Apple hardware in that equation. Throw me a bone AppleTV!

I pay for the 400k stream from MLB TV and I watch it on my Mac mini hooked up to my TV via s-video. With Flip4Mac and Quicktime Pro, I can even watch it in full screen. The quality isn't anywhere near HD, but it's pretty close to SD. It looks similar to the quality of my TiVo on "basic".

And it means I can watch Giants games, and my girlfriend can watch Red Sox games in New York City.