Just three years after the introduction, baseball on Friday night on Apple TV+ could come to an end. Yahoo Sports’ Kendall Baker reported last week that Apple’s contract with baseball on Friday night is “up in the air” (after he first reported that “Apple is fully”) and that NBC/Peacock can take over. While there will definitely be some Apple TV+ fans complaining about Apple’s decision to end his trip to the complicated world of sports flow, I won’t be sorry to watch it go.
Introduced in 2022, Friday Night Baseball Apple’s first step to sports coverage on its Apple TV+ video streaming service with a reported $ 600 million with Major League Baseball. This agreement was followed in 2023 by a $ 2.5 billion megadeal with Major League Soccer to broadcast only matches for 10 years. The two offers indicated an effort from Apple to find a niche, it can cut for itself and insert itself into the conversation with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and others as a larger service provider.
While baseball on Friday night has offered some of the best broadcast quality, its random range of games and rotating study crew has generated weekly complaints on social media. Plus, it doesn’t seem to have had a meaningful effect on Apple TV+ subscriptions. It is not clear whether Apple or MLB is the driving force behind the discussions to break the 7-year contract early, but none of them would be surprising.
Other factors suggest that Apple’s Vaunted MLS agreement may not be near anymore. While MLS Commissioner Dan Garber has publicly praised Apple as “a major technology partner” and appreciates the consistent broadcast plan, which was once a huge problem for MLS, he has also quoted problems with Viewer Analytics (allegedly 120,000 unique viewers per match) as well as the challenge to “ensure enough that people have access to our games.”
In the 2025 season, efforts were made to make the MLS season to pass more accessible, including accessibility through XFinity and Directv, as well as weekly free Sunday games. And a recent poll of 4,000 people who pay found that 72 percent feel the $ 99 fee for Apple TV +’s MLS season passport ($ 79 for subscribers) is too expensive.
Granted, $ 99 for more than a thousand games is not a bad value, but it speaks to a bigger topic: Sports on streaming services make it harder and more expensive for fans to look at. Like many MLB and NBA fans, the only reason I keep my cable -tv -subscription to see local games whenever I want. I understand why Apple would break into the lucrative sports market to begin with, but it also makes sense why they would like to bend-in how big the production is, sports on streaming services are inherent-not-friendly.
For example, I have free access to MLS season passes on Apple TV+because it is part of my mobile data plan. However, I do not use it because it is easier to see games on FOX and FS1. Granted, MLS Season Pass offers many more matches than I can get on Kabel -TV, but it’s good enough for casual fans. The same goes for MLB Friday Night Baseball. Outside of a handful of must-see games every season, it’s easier to just see what’s on my local cable network.
The past tells us that Apple’s recent bid history is filled with sports agreements that never happened. The possible ending to Friday night Baseball comes a few days after Athletic reported that Apple was not only interested in baseball on Sunday night, which is currently released on ESPN, but also the first round of MLB playing games. Last year, Apple was allegedly in conversations with FIFA about the rights to the 2025 Club World Cup. It was reported in 2022 that Apple was in the process of the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket but was overbuined by YouTube. And as late as last July, reports indicated that Apple gave an aggressive $ 150 million per year. Years of the rights to Formula One racing in the US after success with the F1 movie.
And it’s not to mention games on other streaming services. As noted in this Reddit post, you need access to no less than five streaming services plus ESPN and local networks to watch each NFL game this season: NFL+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peacock and YouTube. Even if you should get them all for free, it’s still a massive pain to remember what’s happening where.
Then there is the general seed experience that varies from service to service and does not encourage viewing multiple games. Like most sports fans, I like to turn to other games during breaks and when you stream, you can’t turn around right away. You have to leave the game you see navigating out to the selection menu, selecting another game, and then wait for it to load. It’s not a one button, immediate satisfaction you get with a TV show.
It is well known that the Apple VP for Services Eddy Cue is a huge sports fan – an interview with GQ Sports describes Cue as Apple’s “Sports Ambassador” – and he clearly wants Apple to be a player. But how big of a game Apple will play, to see. Should the F1 agreement not be realized and Friday night Baseball and MLS season pass ends, it would be clear indicators for Apple to close the book on its sports coverage.
I understand that sports streaming is here to stay and only get stronger. Peacock, Prime Video and Netflix grab all pieces of the cake, leaving sports fans struggling with the inevitable eventuality that it will be too difficult and expensive to see every game they want. And it will be just as good if Apple retires to the sidelines.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all Apple News you missed last week in a practical Bite size Roundup. We call it Apple breakfast because we think it goes well with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you also want to give it a reading in lunch or dinner.
Trending: Top stories
Do you have AirPods Pro 2? You need to know these 7 lesser known features
Can iPad survive the closure pressure from iPhone and Mac?
I bought an Apple Studio screen in spite of the rumors of a new one and love it
These seven rumored iPhone 17 -Functions have never been viewed on an Apple device
How to change back what you don’t like by iOS 26
The Podcast of the Week
It’s the second episode of our brand new version of Macworld Podcast. At this show, we’re talking about Apple’s Big Boo-Boo last week, inadvertently revealing upcoming plans for MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, Apple Watch, iPad and more. Plus, what we see (or don’t watch) on Apple TV+, what happened this week in Apple History and Macworld Podcast Mailbag.
You can catch each episode of Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podcasts app or our own site.
Reviews Corner
This pluggable dock brings 5-display plays to your MacBook work station.
Kratfgeek just TAP TRIPOD is a smart VRI on the classic selfie stick.
Rygtemøllen
Apple -Ocode reveals touch -id could come to Apple Watch
Another report claims the iPhone 18 will skip its usual September release game.
Apple’s next ‘e’ phone could dump notched to the dynamic island.
Apple is reportedly making a new luxury iPhone case to replace Finewoven.
Weekly video
Enjoy all our short -shaped video on Tiktok or Instagram.
Software updates, bugs and problems
A new iOS 26 beta is here as the release is approaching more closely.
Apple has updated iOS 18 and MacOS 15 with critical error and security fixes
And with that we are done for this week’s Apple breakfast. If you would like regular mergers, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from Macalope-a Irreverent, humorous takeover of the latest news and rumors of half a man, half mythical Mac Beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky or X for discussion about Breaking Apple News Stories. See you next Monday and stay Apple.