MLB Streaming Deals

[SteveA]

MLB has two new deals with streaming services that will have been somewhat under the radar in terms of discussion.   The Orioles have a game on each.

First, every Friday, there will be a two games, an early game and a late game (though sometime their times will overlap some), shown on AppleTV.   At least for the first 12 weeks, these games will not require you to be a paying Apple+ subscriber to watch.   But you will have to have a way to watch it, with an Apple login.   Such as going to the web site online, or having the Apple app on your smart TV or Roku or whatever.   And at some point after the 12 weeks, they will start making this available ONLY to Apple+ subscribers.  But the first 12 weeks are free, though you will have to sign up for an account.

The first games are tonight, Mets @ Nats and Astros @ Angels.   Those games are EXCLUSIVE to the Apple deal, so they will NOT air on the RSNs.   So Nats fans will not be able to tune in tonight to MASN and watch Scherzer pitch against his old team.    The Orioles are scheduled for one of these games in the 12 weeks... at Boston, on Friday, May 27.   So that game will not be on MASN and will only be available via the Apple broadcast.   (And I am guessing but do not know for sure, that it won't be available to people who get the mlb.tv package... it is exclusive to Apple).

And oh, by the way, Melanie Newman will be one of the announcers for the Apple games.    One would assume because she is local it would be the East Coast game of the pair each week.

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Secondly, for 18 Sundays, starting May 8 and running through September 4, there will be a game streamed on Peacock, available to Peacock paying subscribers.   [The first game, White Sox at Red Sox on 5/8, will be aired nationally on NBC as well but the rest will only be on Peacock and that broadcast will only be avaiable to Peacock paying subscribers].   I have not quite been able to figure out whether this deal is exclusive like the Apple one is, so I do not know if the games will still also air on each team's RSN or mlb-tv.   Maybe someone can find that out and add that information here.

But the interesting thing about these games is so that they don't conflict too much with the majority of games in the early afternoon window on Sundays, MLB is doing two things:

   -- no other MLB games on Sundays will start before 1:35, so teams that normally  started at 1:05 or 1:10 will have some games pushed back 25-30 minutes
   -- these games will all air at 11:30 AM or 12 Noon.  Yes, that's right, baseball at 11:30 or noon every Sunday.   Needless to say all these games are in the Eastern Time Zone, though some have west coast opponents whose fans will have to get up at 8:30 if they want to watch.   And folks who actually have tickets to these games will now be going to 11:30 or 12:00 games instead of the previous times.

The entire 18 game schedule ahs been announced, and there is one Oriole game on it.   The Orioles host the Angels on July 10.   That game is now at 12:05 instead of 1:35.    And as I said, I have not been able to determine if that one will still be available on MASN.