Friday Night Baseball, Apple TV+-Style, Begins With Apple Music, Siri Tie-Ins

Friday night’s game between the New York Mets and Washington Nationals was to have kicked off Apple TV+'s exclusive, free weekly Major League Baseball coverage. The Apple TV+ games won’t be available on local cable TV stations or MLB.TV, said MLB.com; MLB.TV subscribers will be redirected to the Apple TV+ app. Users must have an Apple ID to view the games, but no subscription to Apple TV+ is required. Apple is exploiting various of its technologies on the broadcasts, including enabling spatial audio with 5.1-channel sound and having on-screen callouts showing players’ walk-up songs from Apple Music and baseball trivia via Siri. Other extras include rules analysis and interpretation from former MLB umpire Brian Gorman, on-screen graphics with “probabilities-based forecasts” of different situational outcomes, plus highlights and look-ins from other games. Apple said its MLB broadcasts will be shot using high-speed Phantom cameras and a high-resolution Sony A7R IV camera nicknamed Megalodon. Apple TV+’s broadcast team includes Melanie Newman and Stephen Nelson for play-by-play; analysts Chris Young, Hannah Keyser, Hunter Pence and Katie Nolan; and reporters Brooke Fletcher and Heidi Watney, with game assignments to be announced by the week. Scheduled games are available to anyone with internet access; instructions are available here. The Mets-Nationals game was to be followed by a game between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels, said MLB.