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Friday Night Baseball
Friday Night Baseball is a live broadcast of Major League Baseball (MLB) games on Apple TV, which debuted during the league's 2022 season. The weekly broadcast is produced by MLB Network, featuring a doubleheader with pregame and postgame analysis. The broadcast is available in United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as select overseas markets including Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand availability of the broadcast to more regions in the future.
In March 2022, Apple Inc. signed a seven-year deal with MLB for the broadcast for US$85 million per year, a total value of $595 million. This includes an annual $55 million rights fee as well as $30 million for Apple advertising. Apple has the right to exit the agreement after the first or second year. The deal was the first sports broadcasting contract ever acquired by Apple. Plans for the broadcast were formally announced on March 8, 2022, at Apple's Peek Performance event and later in an online press release.
The first broadcast date was initially made uncertain as the deal was signed amidst the 2021–22 MLB lockout and the threat of cancelled games. After the lockout was resolved, MLB announced that the first games would air on April 8, 2022, with a doubleheader of New York Mets–Washington Nationals and Houston Astros–Los Angeles Angels as the inaugural matchups. Apple also announced that Friday Night Baseball will be free-of-charge for its first 12 weeks of broadcasts, although this was later extended for the rest of the inaugural season.
On April 7, 2022, Apple announced that Melanie Newman, Chris Young, Hannah Keyser, and Brooke Fletcher would be the inaugural broadcast crew for east coast games, while Stephen Nelson, Hunter Pence, Katie Nolan, and Heidi Watney would be the broadcast crew for west coast games. Lauren Gardner was announced as the pregame and postgame studio host, along with a rotation of MLB Network studio analysts including Carlos Peña, Cliff Floyd, and Yonder Alonso. Former MLB umpire Brian Gorman was also hired as a rules analyst. All games feature both the road team and home team's radio broadcasts as a second audio program option.
On September 23, 2022, St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols hit the 700th home run of his career during a Friday Night Baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the announcement of the Friday Night Baseball schedule for the first half of the 2023 MLB season, Apple announced that they had signed a deal with DirecTV to distribute Friday Night Baseball to their commercial subscribers, ensuring availability to venues (such as bars and restaurants) that were not readily equipped to handle streaming-only broadcasts. DirecTV had previously signed similar deals with Amazon Prime Video for their Thursday Night Football broadcasts, as well as with Apple for MLS Season Pass broadcasts. Apple also announced that they would add alternative audio feeds allowing viewers in the United States and Canada to listen to local radio broadcasts from the home team or the away team instead of the regular audio feed. It was also announced that, unlike the inaugural season, an Apple TV+ subscription would now be required to watch Friday Night Baseball.
For the 2024 MLB season, Apple announced that its studio coverage would be on-site for select games. On June 5, 2024, The Athletic reported that Apple TV+ would not enforce its exclusivity for the June 7 Dodgers-Yankees matchup scheduled to air on the platform in order to allow YES Network, in New York, and Spectrum SportsNet LA, in Los Angeles, to air the game locally. The other two games in the three game series will be exclusively aired by Fox and ESPN respectively.
In August 2025, it was reported that Apple will end its contract with MLB early, and discontinue Friday Night Baseball following the 2025 season. Subsequent reports stated that Apple TV would retain its current package of telecasts through the end of the existing contract.
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Friday Night Baseball AI simulator
(@Friday Night Baseball_simulator)
Friday Night Baseball
Friday Night Baseball is a live broadcast of Major League Baseball (MLB) games on Apple TV, which debuted during the league's 2022 season. The weekly broadcast is produced by MLB Network, featuring a doubleheader with pregame and postgame analysis. The broadcast is available in United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as select overseas markets including Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand availability of the broadcast to more regions in the future.
In March 2022, Apple Inc. signed a seven-year deal with MLB for the broadcast for US$85 million per year, a total value of $595 million. This includes an annual $55 million rights fee as well as $30 million for Apple advertising. Apple has the right to exit the agreement after the first or second year. The deal was the first sports broadcasting contract ever acquired by Apple. Plans for the broadcast were formally announced on March 8, 2022, at Apple's Peek Performance event and later in an online press release.
The first broadcast date was initially made uncertain as the deal was signed amidst the 2021–22 MLB lockout and the threat of cancelled games. After the lockout was resolved, MLB announced that the first games would air on April 8, 2022, with a doubleheader of New York Mets–Washington Nationals and Houston Astros–Los Angeles Angels as the inaugural matchups. Apple also announced that Friday Night Baseball will be free-of-charge for its first 12 weeks of broadcasts, although this was later extended for the rest of the inaugural season.
On April 7, 2022, Apple announced that Melanie Newman, Chris Young, Hannah Keyser, and Brooke Fletcher would be the inaugural broadcast crew for east coast games, while Stephen Nelson, Hunter Pence, Katie Nolan, and Heidi Watney would be the broadcast crew for west coast games. Lauren Gardner was announced as the pregame and postgame studio host, along with a rotation of MLB Network studio analysts including Carlos Peña, Cliff Floyd, and Yonder Alonso. Former MLB umpire Brian Gorman was also hired as a rules analyst. All games feature both the road team and home team's radio broadcasts as a second audio program option.
On September 23, 2022, St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols hit the 700th home run of his career during a Friday Night Baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the announcement of the Friday Night Baseball schedule for the first half of the 2023 MLB season, Apple announced that they had signed a deal with DirecTV to distribute Friday Night Baseball to their commercial subscribers, ensuring availability to venues (such as bars and restaurants) that were not readily equipped to handle streaming-only broadcasts. DirecTV had previously signed similar deals with Amazon Prime Video for their Thursday Night Football broadcasts, as well as with Apple for MLS Season Pass broadcasts. Apple also announced that they would add alternative audio feeds allowing viewers in the United States and Canada to listen to local radio broadcasts from the home team or the away team instead of the regular audio feed. It was also announced that, unlike the inaugural season, an Apple TV+ subscription would now be required to watch Friday Night Baseball.
For the 2024 MLB season, Apple announced that its studio coverage would be on-site for select games. On June 5, 2024, The Athletic reported that Apple TV+ would not enforce its exclusivity for the June 7 Dodgers-Yankees matchup scheduled to air on the platform in order to allow YES Network, in New York, and Spectrum SportsNet LA, in Los Angeles, to air the game locally. The other two games in the three game series will be exclusively aired by Fox and ESPN respectively.
In August 2025, it was reported that Apple will end its contract with MLB early, and discontinue Friday Night Baseball following the 2025 season. Subsequent reports stated that Apple TV would retain its current package of telecasts through the end of the existing contract.