General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20268 min read

Friday Night Baseball

Friday Night Baseball is a weekly Major League Baseball (MLB) doubleheader streamed exclusively on Apple TV, featuring two marquee matchups every Friday of the regular season with live pre- and postgame shows and no local broadcast restrictions. Apple and MLB announced the rights agreement in March 2022, and the package has run each season since, reaching Apple TV subscribers in 60 countries and regions.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Weekly Friday night doubleheader, exclusive to Apple TV, with live pre- and postgame shows and no local broadcast restrictions³
Deal	Seven-year agreement established in 2022, worth a cash fee of about $50 million per year, covering 2022 through 2028⁴^•⁵
Debut	April 8, 2022, with the New York Mets at the Washington Nationals; games were initially free to anyone with internet access⁶
Availability	Apple TV subscribers in 60 countries and regions; $12.99 (U.S.) per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers⁷
2026 season	Fifth season, beginning March 27, 2026, with the Los Angeles Angels at the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Guardians at the Seattle Mariners²^•⁸
Production firsts	First iPhone use in a live professional sports broadcast workflow (September 26, 2025) and first MLB property broadcast live in Apple Immersive on Apple Vision Pro (August 28, 2026)⁹^•⁷

The Apple deal and its place in MLB broadcasting

MLB made the Apple agreement official on March 8, 2022, as a comprehensive rights deal that included a weekly "Friday Night Baseball" doubleheader on Apple TV+ (the service has since been renamed Apple TV).¹ Yahoo Sports described it as Apple's first deep dive into live sports coverage, and at launch the Friday games were available for a limited time without an Apple TV+ subscription, despite the service charging $4.99 per month.¹⁰^•²²^•²³ The seven-year arrangement, worth a reported cash fee of about $50 million per year, runs from 2022 to 2028, and MLB confirmed in November 2025 that two Friday night games would continue on Apple TV for the 2026 to 2028 seasons.⁴^•⁵

Exclusivity. The Friday games are national exclusives: they stream only on Apple TV and, due to MLB exclusivities, select games are unavailable on MLB.TV domestically and internationally.¹¹ Senate testimony on sports streaming noted that MLB's 2022 Apple TV+ deal made Friday night games exclusive and that the league's longstanding local blackout rules continued to frustrate fans, with cord-cutters in some markets left without a legal way to watch local baseball after streaming services dropped regional sports networks.¹² In the 2022 launch season the scheduled games were available to anyone with internet access, for free, only on Apple TV+; a paid Apple TV subscription is now required for live games.⁶^•³

Format and how to watch

Each week during the 25-week MLB regular season, Apple TV carries two games on Friday, chosen as marquee matchups and scheduled without local broadcast restrictions, so a subscriber in any of the 60 available countries and regions can watch either game.² Viewing requires an Apple TV subscription and an Apple ID, accessed through the Apple TV app, through a redirect from the MLB.TV app, or at tv.apple.com.³ The subscription costs $12.99 per month in the U.S. with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers, and the games play on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, smart TVs, streaming devices, game consoles, and the web.⁷

Alongside the games, Apple TV carries related MLB content including the weeknight whip-around show MLB Big Inning, Countdown to First Pitch, MLB Daily Recap, and MLB This Week, plus free game recaps, classic games, highlights, and interviews in the Apple TV app.²

Broadcast teams and production

The broadcasts are produced by MLB Network's Emmy Award-winning production team in partnership with Apple's live sports production team.² From the 2026 season onward, the lead crews are Wayne Randazzo (play-by-play) with Dontrelle Willis and Heidi Watney, and Alex Faust (play-by-play) with Ryan Spilborghs and Tricia Whitaker, with Rich Waltz calling select games; Lauren Gardner has hosted the live pre- and postgame coverage since the inaugural season.²^•⁶ In the inaugural season, play-by-play announcer Melanie Newman became the second woman to lead play-by-play duties for a national broadcast team.⁶

The production has consistently introduced new camera technology: high-speed Phantoms and the high-resolution Megalodon camera at launch, plus in-stadium drone shots, real-time probability graphics, umpire helmet and body cams, and mic'ed plays in later seasons.⁶^•⁹

iPhone as a broadcast camera

The Fenway first. On September 26, 2025, the final Friday Night Baseball broadcast of the 2025 season, the Boston Red Sox hosted the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park with four iPhone 17 Pro devices (one Pro Max and three Pros) integrated into the live production, which Apple described as what is believed to be the first use of the iPhone in a live professional sports broadcast workflow.⁹^•¹³ The phones were mounted in positions a traditional camera could not reach, including the home dugout, inside the Green Monster, and on the foul pole, and ran standard accessories with the widely available Blackmagic Camera app, feeding footage by fiber or RF into one of the two production trucks Apple uses per game.¹³ The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum later added one of the iPhones used in the broadcast, mounted on Fenway's foul pole, to its permanent collection, its first smartphone.¹⁴

The experiment became routine. Following strong fan response, Apple expanded iPhone use to additional sports broadcasts, including the 2025 MLS Cup, and then integrated iPhone into the regular production rotation for Friday Night Baseball and MLS broadcasts throughout the 2026 season.¹⁵ The final 2026 broadcast on September 18, when the San Francisco Giants visited the Los Angeles Dodgers, used 14 iPhone 18 Pro devices embedded around Dodger Stadium, including in the pitch clock, backstop, foul pole, and both bullpens; eight of the 14 sent live feeds over a dedicated T-Mobile Private 5G Network operating on a different frequency from the roughly 50,000 fans' phones in the stadium.¹⁶^•¹⁷ Apple had first quietly tested iPhones in an unannounced trial during its September 19, 2025 broadcast of the Giants playing the Dodgers.¹⁸

Apple Immersive on Vision Pro

On August 28, 2026, Friday Night Baseball became the first MLB property broadcast live in Apple Immersive on Apple Vision Pro, beginning with the Boston Red Sox at the New York Yankees. The format uses 3D video recorded in 8K with a 180-degree field of view, bespoke commentary from Paul Severino (play-by-play), Xavier Scruggs (analyst), and Michelle Margaux (sideline reporter), floating lineup and stat graphics, and ambisonic microphones capturing stadium sound in Spatial Audio.⁷ Vision Pro owners with an Apple TV subscription in Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the U.S. can stream the immersive games, with full replays and highlight packages available on demand.⁷ The September 18 Giants-Dodgers finale was the fourth immersive broadcast of the 2026 season.¹⁹

Schedule highlights

Apple and MLB release the schedule in halves and monthly installments. The 2026 season opened March 27 with the Angels at the Astros and the Guardians at the Mariners, and the first-half slate included the Dodgers hosting the Cubs (April 24), a Mets-Yankees Subway Series matchup (May 15), and a Dodgers-Phillies rematch (May 29).⁸^•²⁰ July 2026 featured the Red Sox visiting Juan Soto and the Mets at Citi Field on July 10 and Aaron Judge's Yankees facing Bryce Harper's Phillies on July 24, and the September slate closed with the Phillies at the Mets and the Giants at the Dodgers amid the playoff race.²¹^•⁷

Reception

Fan response has been mixed. Supporters point to high production quality and the absence of local broadcast restrictions on the service itself; critics object that the exclusive Friday window removes games from MLB.TV and local broadcasts, adding another required subscription for fans following a single team, a frustration documented in Senate testimony on sports streaming.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Comedy, drama, and general-genre web series › Premiered 2022 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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