Apple TV+ Shares 2023 Friday Night MLB Schedule, Subscription Now Required

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Apple today announced that its weekly MLB doubleheader "Friday Night Baseball" returns in April. While the games were free to watch last season, an Apple TV+ subscription is now required, with U.S. pricing set at $6.99 per month or $69 per year.

Apple TV Plus Friday Night Baseball 2023
"Friday Night Baseball" will include two live MLB games each Friday throughout the 2023 regular season. The games will be available to stream in 60 countries and regions, up from 13 last season, with no local broadcast restrictions. The action will begin on Friday, April 7, with the Chicago Cubs facing the Texas Rangers at 2 p.m. Eastern Time and the Atlanta Braves taking on the San Diego Padres at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

In the U.S., DirecTV will make "Friday Night Baseball" games available to more than 300,000 restaurants, bars, hotel lounges, retail stores, and other venues throughout the regular season on existing satellite TV equipment, according to Apple.

Apple and the MLB shared the "Friday Night Baseball" schedule for the first half of the season, through June 30. Each game will feature "state-of-the-art cameras to present vivid live-action shots," along with live pre-game and post-game coverage.

2023 "Friday Night Baseball" Schedule on Apple TV+

Friday, April 7
Texas Rangers at Chicago Cubs
2 p.m. ET

San Diego Padres at Atlanta Braves
7 p.m. ET

Friday, April 14
San Francisco Giants at Detroit Tigers
6:30 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Angels at Boston Red Sox
7 p.m. ET

Friday, April 21
Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees
7 p.m. ET

Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves
7 p.m. ET

Friday, April 28
Philadelphia Phillies at Houston Astros
8 p.m. ET

St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Dodgers
10 p.m. ET

Friday, May 5
Chicago White Sox at Cincinnati Reds
6:30 p.m. ET

Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Guardians
7 p.m. ET

Friday, May 12
Kansas City Royals at Milwaukee Brewers
8 p.m. ET

Chicago Cubs at Minnesota Twins
8 p.m. ET

Friday, May 19
Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays
7 p.m. ET

Seattle Mariners at Atlanta Braves
7 p.m. ET

Friday, May 26
San Diego Padres at New York Yankees
7 p.m. ET

Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
6:30 p.m. ET

Friday, June 2
Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds
5 p.m. ET

Cleveland Guardians at Minnesota Twins
8 p.m. ET

Friday, June 9
Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles
7 p.m. ET

Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels
9:30 p.m. ET

Friday, June 16
Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers
8 p.m. ET

Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
10 p.m. ET

Friday, June 23
Pittsburgh Pirates at Miami Marlins
6:30 p.m. ET

New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies
7 p.m. ET

Friday, June 30
Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates
7 p.m. ET

Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Angels
9:30 p.m. ET

For more "Friday Night Baseball" programming details, read the Apple Newsroom press release.

Tags: Apple TV Plus Guide, MLB

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Top Rated Comments

HiVolt Avatar
HiVolt
25 months ago
Haha, no thanks. Baseball is a regional sport now... I watched the broadcasts last year for my team the Blue Jays, and the commentary and analysis was so robotic... These people don't have a clue about the inner workings of the team as the local team broadcaster.

They expect me to pay $69 to watch 4-6 games of my team per season? That's as much as it costs me to pay for the sports streaming service of my home team's broadcaster for the full baseball season.

Sorry, the value is not there. I'll listen on the radio for those games.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sjsharksfan12 Avatar
sjsharksfan12
25 months ago
And these games are blacked out on MLB.TV I assume. Something confuses me about MLB. They talk about the whole blackout situation, yet they sign exclusive deals with both Apple and Peacock and those games are blacked out anyway unless you get a subscription. So if you buy MLB.TV, Peacock, Apple TV, and subscribe to an internet cable package, that's a lot of money just to legally watch baseball. Seems counter productive.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
dannyyankou
25 months ago

It's not worth $70. It was barely worth free, especially with the horrible commentators. For $30 more per year, you get dozens of MLS matches with competent announcers.
It's not an extra $70 per year, they just mean you need an Apple TV+ subscription to watch this time. Last year, you didn't need an Apple TV+ subscription.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
autrefois Avatar
autrefois
25 months ago

Each game will feature "state-of-the-art cameras to present vivid live-action shots," along with live pre-game and post-game coverage.
“This home run was shot on an iPhone” ?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gleepskip Avatar
gleepskip
25 months ago
It's not worth $70. It was barely worth free, especially with the horrible commentators. For $30 more per year, you get dozens of MLS matches with competent announcers.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HobeSoundDarryl Avatar
HobeSoundDarryl
25 months ago

And these games are blacked out on MLB.TV I assume. Something confuses me about MLB. They talk about the whole blackout situation, yet they sign exclusive deals with both Apple and Peacock and those games are blacked out anyway unless you get a subscription. So if you buy MLB.TV, Peacock, Apple TV, and subscribe to an internet cable package, that's a lot of money just to legally watch baseball. Seems counter productive.
All anti-consumer actions are about the money. Change your lens from looking at this as a MLB consumer to the seller of MLB product trying to maximize revenue.

* Sell a subscription to MLB.TV. Revenue for you.
* Peacock is interesteed in some games, so sell a few to them and use blackout rules so they have an exclusive. More revenue for you.
* AppleTV is interested in some games, so sell a few to them and use blackout rules so they have an exclusive on those games. More revenue for you.

As long as people just roll over and pay, you can keep choosing "more revenue for you" options. Maybe YouTube wants a few games? Great! More revenue for you. Maybe Hulu? Great! More revenue for you. Maybe Playstation and Xbox want some games? Great! More revenue for you. Maybe Apple wants some "be there VR" games for the new goggles? Great! More revenue for you.

All you have to do is watch for a downturn in the main package sales because people are frustrated with the blackouts to feed these extra revenue sources. If you don't see that, you can keep carving out slices of games and making more and more money.

How does this get fixed? Consumers have to vote with their wallets. If they opt to just "play ball" with these kinds of shenanigans, MLB makes more money from streaming, you earn your bonus for innovating these additional revenue streams and making more and more such deals, owners are happier with free, additional revenue streams from the same product, etc. Basically, everyone on the selling end of the transaction is happy and rewarded for making such decisions.

Flipping it back to seeing it all as a consumer: Of course it looks counter productive, if not anti-consumer. MLB.TV should buy ALL games. These other options should not have exclusives that remove games from the "all games" offer. You could even make a consumer-centric argument about ending local blackouts of all sports too. However, all of those arguments involve making less money for major league sports owners and keeping more money in consumer pockets. Why does the seller (of anything) want that?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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