Apple TV+ is home to Friday Night Baseball, and we’ve checked all the bases to determine if the streaming service is worth it for MLB fans.
Apple TV+
Price: $6.99/mo.
Free trial: 7 days
MLB content: 50 live games, full-game replays, 20+ MLB shows.
Friday Night Baseball is a weekly Major League Baseball (MLB) doubleheader available to watch across 25 Friday nights during the MLB regular season. Produced by MLB Network, the live broadcast streams exclusively on Apple TV+.
Before you step up to the plate with Apple TV+, we’ll explain what MLB content the service offers—including an up-to-date Friday Night Baseball schedule.
Apple TV+ is the perfect streaming service for casual baseball fans. For only $6.99 a month, you’ll get two live games each week on top of a sizeable collection of on-demand MLB content.
The in-game experience on Apple TV+ is more unique than your average MLB broadcast. Every Friday Night Baseball game comes equipped with advanced statistical overlays with on-screen graphics that match the visual design of Apple’s widely familiar branding—including Apple Music pop-up boxes that show batters’ walk-up songs.
Here’s a look at every Friday Night Baseball matchup during the final quarter of the 2023 MLB season.
| Game | Date | Time (ET) |
|---|---|---|
| Toronto Blue Jays at Cincinnati Reds | August 18 | 6:30 p.m. |
| Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees | August 18 | 7 p.m. |
| Los Angeles Dodgers at Boston Red Sox | August 25 | 7 p.m. |
| Kansas City Royals at Seattle Mariners | August 25 | 10 p.m. |
| Tampa Bay Rays at Cleveland Guardians | September 1 | 7 p.m. |
| Seattle Mariners at New York Mets | September 1 | 7 p.m. |
| St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds | September 8 | 6:30 p.m. |
| San Diego Padres at Houston Astros | September 8 | 8 p.m. |
| Tampa Bay Rays at Baltimore Orioles | September 15 | 7 p.m. |
| Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals | September 15 | 8 p.m. |
| New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies | September 22 | 7 p.m. |
| San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers | September 22 | 10 p.m. |
Data effective as of post date.
In addition to live Friday Night Baseball broadcasts, Apple TV+ is home to several on-demand MLB Network programs. It’s all available on the Apple TV+ Major League Baseball hub page, which you can access by scrolling down on the app’s Originals tab or the website’s home page.
Two great offerings for MLB fans on Apple TV+ are All MLB, All Day and MLB Big Inning. All MLB, All Day is a 24/7 channel that plays various MLB Network series, game replays, and news updates, while MLB Big Inning is a nightly show that provides live look-ins and highlights from around the league.
If you prefer to watch things on your own schedule, you can still tune in to all recaps and Friday Night Baseball game replays at any time on demand. There are also a lot of docuseries and studio shows available to watch as you wait for the next Friday night matchups to come around.
Live MLB games are scattered across several different viewing options. It’s an unfortunately daunting fact, which we explain in more detail on our How To Watch MLB Games page.
If you want access to the most MLB games possible, we recommend DIRECTV. The satellite TV service carries all the necessary MLB channels and offers one of the largest assortments of regional sports networks (RSNs)—which you’ll need for locally televised games. Plus, you can add MLB EXTRA INNINGS® to your DIRECTV plan for complete out-of-market coverage.
While Apple TV+ is a cheap way to watch MLB games online, it’s not the only streaming option. Peacock offers MLB game access for as low as $5.99 a month with its MLB Sunday Leadoff programming. Plus, MLB.TV exists for cord-cutters who want the same out-of-market game count as MLB EXTRA INNINGS.
Apple TV+ is one of the most inexpensive ways to stream live MLB games during the regular season. At $6.99 a month, the streaming service hosts every Friday Night Baseball matchup. It also offers a wide selection of MLB Network–produced content—including the nightly MLB Big Inning whip-around show.
Friday Night Baseball was the first live sport to join Apple TV+. But now you can watch select MLS games through the service or upgrade your plan with the MLS Season Pass add-on for more sports action.
If soccer isn’t your thing, Apple TV+ is still one of the best streaming services because of its content quality. That alone is worth a look—even if you only use a free trial at first.
No, Friday Night Baseball games aren’t free on Apple TV+ during the 2023 MLB season. While Apple TV+ may decide to offer select games for free like it did in 2022, a subscription only costs $6.99 a month if you want complete access.
Yes, Friday Night Baseball programming is exclusive to Apple TV+. But like Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video, commercial venues like bars and restaurants can still show Friday Night Baseball games with a DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS satellite subscription.
Lauren Gardner returns in 2023 to host pregame and postgame Friday Night Baseball coverage with Siera Santos. This season, Wayne Randazzo and Alex Faust will split play-by-play duties.
Our sports experts spent over 12 hours researching and streaming MLB content on Apple TV+ to determine the streaming service’s worth for baseball fans. We examined Apple TV+ alongside comparable services that offer live MLB games—like Peacock and MLB.TV—by looking at pricing, MLB game count, and on-demand content quantity.
Check out our How We Rank page to learn more about our methods.
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