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

by

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

Popular Stories

apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Expected Later This Year With These New Features

Saturday July 12, 2025 3:09 pm PDT by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the next Apple TV, according to rumors. Rumors Faster Wi-Fi Support The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports ...
Read Full Article • 158 comments
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Complications

Apple Watch Ultra 3: What to Expect

Sunday July 13, 2025 10:30 am PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 is nearly over, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the Apple Watch Ultra 3:Satellite connectivity for sending and receiving text messages when Wi-Fi and cellular coverage is unavailable 5G support, up from LTE on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Likely a wide-angle OLED display that ...
Read Full Article • 102 comments
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 16 New Features

Friday July 11, 2025 12:40 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are only two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:A redesigned Dynamic Island: It has been rumored that all iPhone 17 models will have a redesigned Dynamic Island interface — it might ...
Read Full Article
iphone 16 pro ghost hand

5 Reasons to Skip This Year's iPhone 17 Pro

Thursday July 10, 2025 4:54 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 series in two months, and the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to get a new design for the rear casing and the camera area. But more significant changes to the lineup are not expected until next year, when the iPhone 18 models arrive. If you're thinking of trading in your iPhone for this year's latest, consider the following features rumored to be coming...
Read Full Article • 112 comments
top stories 2025 07 12

Top Stories: iPhone 17 Pro Rumors, iOS 26 Beta 3, and More

Saturday July 12, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
The iOS 26 public beta release is quickly approaching, while developers have recently gotten their hands on a third round of betas that has seen Apple continue to tweak features, design, and functionality. We're also continuing to hear rumors about the iPhone 17 lineup that is now just about right around the corner, while Apple's latest big-budget film appears to be taking off, so read on...
Read Full Article • 1 comments
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 17 May See 'Significant' Dynamic Island Changes

Monday July 14, 2025 12:11 am PDT by
The iPhone's Dynamic Island experience is set to undergo "significant evolution" over the next few years, according to a new rumor. Earlier this month, a report suggested that the iPhone 17 lineup will feature a redesigned Dynamic Island user interface, but little else was explained about the software changes. Now, the leaker known as "Majin Bu" appears to have corroborated this, commenting ...
Read Full Article • 45 comments

Top Rated Comments

HiVolt Avatar
HiVolt
30 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
30 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
30 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
30 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
30 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
30 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)
Read All Comments