Apple TV+ Announces 'Friday Night Baseball' Returns Later This Month

[MacRumors]

Apple and Major League Baseball today announced that "Friday Night Baseball" is returning for the 2024 season, which begins later this month.

Friday Night Baseball is included with an Apple TV+ subscription in 60 countries and regions. The weekly doubleheader begins Friday, March 29, with the New York Yankees vs. the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the St. Louis Cardinals:

Fans in 60 countries and regions can enjoy two marquee matchups over 26 weeks with no local broadcast restrictions. "Friday Night Baseball" will begin on opening weekend of the 2024 season — Friday, March 29 — with some of the game's biggest stars taking center stage. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET with Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, and the new-look New York Yankees lineup taking on the Houston Astros. And beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and the Los Angeles Dodgers will host the St. Louis Cardinals.

A schedule of Friday Night Baseball games through June 28 is included in Apple's announcement.

Apple TV+ costs $9.99 per month in the U.S., with various free trial options available. The subscription-based service is built into the Apple TV app, which is available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV box, Apple Vision Pro, select Xbox and PlayStation consoles, select smart TVs and streaming devices, and online at tv.apple.com.

Baseball fans can also keep track of MLB scores in the new Apple Sports app.

Article Link: Apple TV+ Announces 'Friday Night Baseball' Returns Later This Month

 

[onenorth]

In the "good old days" I could watch baseball with rabbit ears. Then it moved to cable. Now I need cable and Apple TV+. Or go to the ballpark and spend a few hundred bucks on tickets and food. Yah, making the game less accessible to fans seems like a great idea. /s

 

[generationrex]

While I appreciate have this included as part of the regular ATV+ subscription, I wish they would schedule these like actual double headers and have two games back to back. Most of the time, it's two games at the same time. This year looks to be similar.

 

[onenorth]

While I appreciate have this included as part of the regular ATV+ subscription, I wish they would schedule these like actual double headers and have two games back to back. Most of the time, it's two games at the same time. This year looks to be similar.

Agreed. Well they said you could stream more than one at a time. Does that count?

 

[spaxxedout]

They should put an immersive camera inside the ball.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I'm sure I'll be seeing a full screen takeover ad the next time I open the TV app making damn sure I know and giving me a huge prominent button to subscribe and a far less obvious and more difficult to reach button to close.

And then I'll see it on my iPad and Mac too.

Here's a couple recent examples. I forgot to screenshot the MLB one last time around, but I'll update when I see it.

Can Apple please stop this? I thought we all agreed full screen takeover popups were bad way back in the 90s.

 

[SueperDrive]

Unfortunately bad broadcast time for EU viewers.

 

[Jdalbo]

I hope they surprise us AVP owners with a special view........

 

[dead.cell]

In the "good old days" I could watch baseball with rabbit ears. Then it moved to cable. Now I need cable and Apple TV+. Or go to the ballpark and spend a few hundred bucks on tickets and food. Yah, making the game less accessible to fans seems like a great idea. /s

lol, comparatively, you need what... 2 or 3 subscriptions for the NFL? (Peacock, ESPN, and a TV service if you don't already have it) Just to watch a game chalk full of ads to the point that you might miss a punt return or extra point because they're compelled to show you another ad or ad-in-frame when a player gets hurt just to squeeze every. last. drop... 🤮🤮🤮

 

[fithian]

I am not a baseball fan. I go to games every ten years or so. That said, make the games live with Spatial Video and I will sign up for the entire season. Perhaps, someone at Apple is listening.

 

[F-B-Z]

Unfortunately bad broadcast time for EU viewers.

I am from the EU, and I love baseball. I even have an MLB.tv subscription. However, the vast majority of Europeans will not mind the broadcast times at all since baseball is highly unpopular over here. It receives close to zero coverage in the media and most people would not even know the rules or any famous players.

 

[DigitalWilk]

I'm sure I'll be seeing a full screen takeover ad the next time I open the TV app making damn sure I know and giving me a huge prominent button to subscribe and a far less obvious and more difficult to reach button to close.

And then I'll see it on my iPad and Mac too.

Here's a couple recent examples. I forgot to screenshot the MLB one last time around, but I'll update when I see it.

Can Apple please stop this? I thought we all agreed full screen takeover popups were bad way back in the 90s.

View attachment 2356541

View attachment 2356542

I completely agree. The Apple Support Forums have this topic coming up a lot. That’s the only avenue that I know to let Apple know this issue. Maybe we could email Tim Cook all at once to get the point across.

 

[O.N.Y.X]

Unfortunately bad broadcast time for EU viewers.

If you happen to be one of the ca. 5 Europeans to be interested in Baseball- indeed.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

Hooray! Everyone enjoys a ball game!

 

[JoeShades]

The picture quality is great, the broadcasters are improved over the first season, but not great

 

[yaxomoxay]

In the "good old days" I could watch baseball with rabbit ears. Then it moved to cable. Now I need cable and Apple TV+. Or go to the ballpark and spend a few hundred bucks on tickets and food. Yah, making the game less accessible to fans seems like a great idea. /s

If only the actual MLB.tv app didn’t have blackouts this problem would be solved.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I completely agree. The Apple Support Forums have this topic coming up a lot. That’s the only avenue that I know to let Apple know this issue. Maybe we could email Tim Cook all at once to get the point across.

I don't think they care though. Unless we pay them more money than they think these ads are making them it's just going to get worse. The engagement philosophy is taking hold in the mothership.

 

[TigerNike23]

It’s a tough choice, but I would argue the picture quality of Friday Night Baseball is the best of any baseball broadcaster.

 

[onenorth]

It’s a tough choice, but I would argue the picture quality of Friday Night Baseball is the best of any baseball broadcaster.

Yes I believe that it's 1080p 60fps. Most sports are still being shown at 720p although a few like NESN are now doing it in 4K. Paramount+ carried the Super Bowl at 1080p HDR and the image quality was the best I've seen.

 

[AppleMega]

Good. Wish they had all of MLB. Their broadcast is a superior vehicle for baseball.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I thought the second year of Friday Night Baseball was so much better and those drone shots of Oracle Park were incredible. I feel like Apple is setting the standard of how to broadcast a sporting event and everyone else should follow suit. If we had the effects of Friday Night Baseball and the broadcaster format of Peacock's Sunday Lead Off, that might be the perfect sports telecast.

 

[JoeShades]

Good. Wish they had all of MLB. Their broadcast is a superior vehicle for baseball.

Hope they still have the local radio broadcasts this year

 

[newyorksole]

tight baseball pants in 4K are back baby! let’s go.

 

[jjudson]

I’m really hating the fragmentation of sports across multiple services. You need to have five different streaming packages to see whole seasons — and that’s if the games aren’t blacked out due to network carriage.

Leagues need to figure this crap out. It’s really hurting fans.

 

[mattoruu]

In the "good old days" I could watch baseball with rabbit ears. Then it moved to cable. Now I need cable and Apple TV+. Or go to the ballpark and spend a few hundred bucks on tickets and food. Yah, making the game less accessible to fans seems like a great idea. /s

Arguably it’s more accessible to fans than ever before.

Back in the good old days with the rabbit ears, you could only watch whatever your local channel was broadcasting. If that was the game you wanted to watch, great. If it wasn’t, then you were out of luck. And it was appointment viewing. You had to tune-in to the exact time it was being broadcasted (or schedule your VCR to record it on a VHS tape).

Now we can watch basically any game practically anywhere in the world at whatever time you want to watch. It would be nice if those games weren’t fragmented on so many platforms though. I certainly not going to argue that is pro-fan. But the ability to watch (practically) anything, anywhere at anytime is there.

Also: A few hundred bucks on tickets? MLB? Sure, certain high-demand games. But you can certainly keep a family outing fairly-reasonable with $20 tickets in the upper deck. I just picked a random day in May for my Baltimore Orioles and they had tickets for as low as $9 each. I’m sure those aren’t amazing seats at $9, but $9 is a good starting price to get you into the park.