Apple paid $87 million annually to bring 'Friday Night Baseball' to Apple TV+
What you need to know
- Apple TV+ will pay $85 million annually to bring "Friday Night Baseball" to the streaming service.
- The agreement has Apple paying that amount over seven years.
- Apple TV+ will stream two games on Friday night across nine countries.
Apple is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to sports.
Yesterday, at the company's "Peek Performance" event, Apple announced "Friday Night Baseball" for its streaming service. The new agreement will bring two MLB games to Apple TV+ every Friday night.
We now know how much Apple paid to make "Friday Night Baseball" a reality. As reported by Forbes, Apple has agreed to pay $85 million annually for seven years in order to stream two MLB games on its streaming service each Friday during the regular season.
If you're familiar with sports in the United States, you're well aware that broadcasting is a complicated mess that has made it difficult (or expensive) for anyone to stream their favorite teams. While two games might not seem like much, the fact that Apple has managed to get two MLB games to viewers in nine countries without any blackouts is a historic achievement in sports streaming.
One of the remaining questions for "Friday Night Baseball" on Apple TV+ is if the games will stream in 60 frames per second. High Frame Rate was one of the major features added to the latest Apple TV 4K and sports is a perfect candidate to take advantage of the technology.
It's still unclear when "Friday Night Baseball" will begin streaming on Apple TV+ as the league and players have still not reached an agreement to start the season. If you want to watch the new offering in the best quality possible, check out our review of the new Apple TV 4K.
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Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.