Apple TV Could Soon Host More MLB Games
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A little over three years ago, Apple scored its first big foray into live sports when it announced Friday Night Baseball. Now, it seems it might be about to take its MLB ambitions to the next level.
According to Sports Business Journal, Apple is the frontrunner in a deal to pick up the rights to MLB Sunday nights from ESPN, which is ending its national TV deal after this season. Nothing is finalized, and talks are ongoing, but sources say that Apple has put an offer on the table that the league finds more appealing — or at least more intriguing — than NBC has offered. Many previously believed the traditional broadcasting network was a lock for acquiring the MLB Sunday Night Baseball rights.
Like most sports deals, it’s ultimately up to the MLB to decide what it wants from a deal, but the league has previously shown an eagerness to work with Apple for the sake of its much broader reach. In early 2022, insiders revealed that Apple’s Friday Night Baseball deal was about getting baseball games in front of as many eyeballs as possible, not only domestically but also internationally. It was also reportedly the MLB that forced Apple to offer Friday Night Baseball free for a limited time — that wasn’t just a promotion Apple ran out of the goodness of its corporate heart.
This kind of reach is something that traditional broadcasters can’t provide, and it’s one of the reasons sources say that MLB officials are hesitating to go with the NBC offer. MLB is primarily a US sporting league, with only one Canadian team (the Toronto Blue Jays) on its 30-team roster. Apple TV+ means those games. Apple TV+ can bring those to a global audience of baseball fans; Friday Night Baseball already runs in over 60 countries and regions, with no blackouts even at home, although some features, like local radio broadcasts of home and away team games, are only available in the US and Canada.
The league — like many other properties — is weighing the pros and cons of potentially fewer dollars from a legacy media company with more reach vs. more dollars from a digitally native platform with fewer eyeballs domestically.
Sports Business Journal
With Friday Night Baseball, Apple also sweetened the pot for the MLB by offering a more holistic experience across all of its services. In addition to plenty of additional Apple TV+ content, including the MLB Big Inning whip-around show to provide live look-ins and in-game highlights every weeknight, Countdown to First Pitch, MLB Daily Recap, and MLB This Week, Apple also ties everything together in the My Sports section in Apple News, highlights league standings in the Sports app, and publishes exclusive official playlists in Apple Music featuring the walk-up songs from featured teams.
That makes for a compelling package for the MLB, and it’s clear the league likes what it’s getting from the Friday Night Baseball package. Apple scored those rights in 2022 as part of a seven-year deal for only $85 million a year — a relatively paltry sum, all things considered, since ESPN was reportedly paying $550 million per season for Sunday Night Baseball rights.
According to Sports Business Journal, this deal would likely be shorter, with a three-year pact expected. That would allow MLB to have all of its national rights on the table in 2028, as that’s when Apple’s Friday Night Baseball deal expires and other deals with Fox Sports and TNT Sports end. There’s a good chance the MLB will appoint Apple as the interim caretaker of Sunday Night Baseball until then. If things work out and Apple proves itself a worthy partner, the streamer might be able to score the complete package to let it set up something that could rival its MLS Season Pass.
