Apple TV and MLB announce first half broadcast schedule including two Red Sox games

Earlier this month Apple announced an agreement with MLB to broadcast two games every Friday night - a doubleheader of sorts - although the games are not always exactly back to back; there is some existing overlap.

On Tuesday, Apple released the schedule for, ostensibly, the first half of the 2022 season, and the Red Sox show up twice, each for home games. They’ll be on Apple TV while hosting the Chicago White Sox on May 6 at 7:00 PM ET, and also on May 27 when they host the Baltimore Orioles, also starting at 7:00 PM ET.

These games are exclusive to Apply TV+, meaning they will not be available on NESN. That said, at least to start the season you will not need a subscription to Apple TV+ to watch the games, but rather just need to have the app downloaded. From their press release, which also includes the entire first half schedule:

What we don’t know is how long “a limited time” is before a subscription is required. It could be just the schedule through June 24 that was released today. It could mean the entire 2022 season. We also don’t know who will make up the Apple broadcast team for these games.

With the first game (New York Mets at Washington Nationals on April 8th at 7 PM ET) rushing to meet us, that seems like a big detail.

If Apple is making this a loss leader and broadcasting for free for a long definition of “limited time,” the games are a bit easier to watch than those exclusively on ESPN. But it’s also yet another network/app/login to follow the Sox. In the end, that’s disappointing when MLB.TV is is amazing product that is somehow structured to make watching your team difficult. Maybe some day the league will find a way to make watching games easier, not more difficult.