[b4pjoe]

Apple TV Plus working with MLB
By Ian Sherr

Apple's adding sports to its $5-a-month Apple TV Plus service, starting with Friday Night Baseball. Apple says there will be games "you can only see on Apple TV Plus." Curious what that will look like.

 

[b4pjoe]

MLB, Apple link up for "Friday Night Baseball"

MLB and Apple today officially announced their rights deal, which includes a Friday night doubleheader.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

 

[b4pjoe]

They have already had a few games that were exclusive to Facebook, Youtube and Twitter so this doesn't really surprise me. Probably more on the way.

 

[b4pjoe]

Yeah they were all free as long as you had an account with each service. But they were exclusive and the only place you could watch those games. I would assume the Apple games will be games that are expected to be good teams. Probably won't see any Rockies vs Pirates on Friday night baseball.

 

[b4pjoe]

I'm sure they got more than nickels and dimes from Apple.

 

[b4pjoe]

Not going to be happy at all if I lose these games from my EI package, which sounds like the case.

Prepare to be unhappy then.

 

[b4pjoe]

MLB Reportedly Also Lands a Streaming Deal with Peacock for Weekday Games

 

[b4pjoe]

That article requires a subscription. Can you provide some details about that deal? Are these daytime games that would require a Peacock Premium subscription?

WSJ News Exclusive | NBC’s Peacock Is Finalizing Deal to Stream MLB Games in New Sunday Time Slot

NBCUniversal’s Peacock is finalizing a deal with Major League Baseball for exclusive rights to stream games in a new Sunday time slot, according to people familiar with the discussions, as the league looks to increase digital partnerships.

www.wsj.com

or

M.L.B. Nears Deal With Another Streaming Service to Carry Some Games Exclusively

Peacock would join Apple TV+, which has already reached an agreement that will make it harder for cable subscribers to find major-league games.

www.nytimes.com

 

[b4pjoe]

I love the enthusiasm and dedication you guys have for baseball. I'm lucky to be able to watch half of my team's games (Cardinals) on television during the season, and we live in-market. My better half enjoys baseball, but she'd much rather have the game on the radio while we're enjoying dinner or sitting outside on the back porch.

Regarding "devaluation of MLB.tv", because I'm not a regular subscriber to MLB.tv: You're losing the Friday/Sunday games to Apple/Peacock. But no one has scooped up the Monday/Wednesday national package that was discontinued by ESPN. Presumably that goes back into MLB.tv access. It's probably a wash, or close to, in terms of total number of games available?

What I say next obviously doesn't account for all people, but for a lot, as we start going into the parsing of content and services and costs for that:

• A good chunk of Apple TV+ subscribers are currently getting the service for free. If you buy any new iPhone/Mac device, you're usually getting a free year of Apple TV+ service. Many just don't activate it. The nice thing is, when MLB season is over, just discontinue the subscription.
• (Not entirely related, but somewhat applicable): There are 150-million Amazon Prime subscribers. That includes Prime Video. A lot of people are already plugged in for Thursday Night Football and don't even know it.

I'm entirely on board that divvying these games up among services is inconvenient for diehard fans. But this league is looking for new money where it can find it, and that, to the chagrin of those used to just flipping on the RSN or ESPN/FOX, is in the streamers.

Peacock picked up those Monday/Wednesday games but the last I heard they reportedly will not be exclusive on Peacock and they won't be blacked out.

You only get 3 months of free Apple TV+ these days when you buy a new device from Apple.

Get 3 months of Apple TV+ when you buy a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac.

 

[b4pjoe]

The Peacock deal is for a total of 18 games, so that's most likely one game a Sunday.

There are 2 different deals between MLB and Peacock. One for the exclusive 18 games and the other to take over the ESPN Monday/Wednesday package.

MLB Reportedly Also Lands a Streaming Deal with Peacock for Weekday Games

 

[b4pjoe]

I connected with DirecTV yesterday about this and the only option they gave me was the $139.99 price. I asked about discounts or promotions and was told there were none. And trying right now at the DirecTV website there is not an option to get it for 129.99. So how does one get the discount?

Nevermind, misread and that link is about MLB-TV. Not DirecTV Extra Innings. Extra Innings is $139.99.

 

[b4pjoe]

Yes I just modified my post about it. I misread your original post.

 

[b4pjoe]

This means we don't have to wait until the end of the preseason for DirecTV to give us access to to MLB.TV as they've done in the past. Last year they didn't give us access until minutes before the start of the first game.

I don’t think it means that at all. DIRECTV EI doesn’t start until the regular which means the MLB-TV subscription through EI won’t start until the regular season.

 

[b4pjoe]

So you bought MLB -TV separate from Extra Innings.

 

[b4pjoe]

For the whole preseason or is it just the free 7 day trial that is being advertised? I can watch right now without even logging in.

 

[b4pjoe]

A couple of things with tonight’s Mets/Nats game tonight.

Picture is great when there isn’t any action. Some judder during action scene though that I don’t see on this same TV on MLB EI or MLB.TV.

Sound and video is not synced. Sound of announcer describing a hit to left field before the pitch was thrown.

Needs some work it seems.

 

[b4pjoe]

I watched a bit of both games, mainly the last couple innings of the Astros/Angels game. In both cases, the HD video quality was excellent (nearly as good as some live 4K sports I've seen) although I did notice occasional glitches, like a weird shake in the picture. Didn't notice the sound being out of sync at all but did hear persistent audio artifacts like a popping sound now and then. And unfortunately, no way to pause or rewind the live stream (unlike Peacock's recent live streams of the Winter Olympics). Even if Apple doesn't want to mess with that feature on their servers, there's no reason why they could use local storage on their Apple TV 4K to create a live buffer (as the Channels app for OTA TV does).

So good first effort at live sports by Apple TV+ but, yeah, they have some technical kinks to work out and improvements to make.

I noticed the sound issue in the Mets/Nats game. Once where the announcer was saying there was a line drive down the right field line that was foul. On the video as they were saying that the pitcher was just throwing the ball. The other time was a line drive down the left field that was fair. Two runs are going to score. As that was said the pitch was just being thrown. I didn't watch much of the Astros/Angels game but what I did see I didn't notice the sound issue. I noticed both games had a female announcer. I thought both did a good job calling the action. At one point in the Astros/Angels game they had 4 people talking at once. Two men and two women. They need to limit it to just 2 announcers. More than two is just too ESPN'y.

On the HD quality I noticed close ups on the people it was good enough that you could see their individual facial hair. It was excellant other than like you mention the weird shake during action scenes where the camera was moving trying to follow the ball or running players. That is where I could see the judder. I also had a couple of times where the picture froze and the only way I could get it going was to force quit the Apple TV+ app and re-start it.

Also you could have a picture in picture of the game along with a game from MLB.TV and switch back and forth between those two games but there were some sound glitches in that where occasionally you could hear the announcers of both games at the same time which is definitely a glitch.

 

[b4pjoe]

MLB broadcast info from last nights game.

1080p native, 60fps, ~8 mbps (AVC H.264) video bitrate, ~256 kbps (AC3 Dolby Digital) audio bitrate.

 

[b4pjoe]

My post wasn’t about using an ATV for DIRECTV streaming. It was watching MLB on the ATV using the Apple TV+ app.

 

[b4pjoe]

I wish we could do PIP for the Apple TV+ games and I wish the MLB app would offer multi game view as well.

As I said you can do PIP for the Apple TV+ game with games on MLB TV and you can also do PIP in the MLB app with games. At least in the MLB app on an ATV.

For example I had both games going on Mets/Nats (Apple TV+) and Reds/Braves (MLB.TV) on the ATV last night. One full screen. The other in PIP.