Apple today announced the broadcaster lineup and production advancements for “Friday Night Baseball,” which debuts on Apple TV+ tomorrow, April 8. Beginning today, fans can watch “Friday Night Baseball” games and another programming via the Apple TV app, including new exclusive shows like “Countdown to First Pitch” and “MLB Daily Recap.”
Melanie Newman (play-by-play), Chris Young (analyst), Hannah Keyser (analyst), and Brooke Fletcher (reporter) will call the New York Mets at the Washington Nationals at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, April 8; and Stephen Nelson (play-by-play), Hunter Pence (analyst), Katie Nolan (analyst), and Heidi Watney (reporter) will call the Houston Astros On a weekly basis, game assignments for “Friday Night Baseball” broadcasters will be announced.
Newman, who joined the Baltimore Orioles’ broadcast crew in 2020, is the second woman to manage play-by-play duties for a national broadcast team in her current role with “Friday Night Baseball.”
“Friday Night Baseball” live pre and postgame coverage will be hosted by Lauren Gardner, along with a rotating group of analysts and former Major League Baseball (MLB) players, including Carlos Peña, Cliff Floyd, and Yonder Alonso.
Scheduled games are available to anyone with internet access, for free, only on Apple TV+. Users can find step-by-step instructions to access “Friday Night Baseball” across devices.
“Friday Night Baseball,” which will be produced by MLB Network’s Emmy Award-winning production team in collaboration with Apple, will provide a modern and energetic broadcast experience that will appeal to both new and existing fans. Throughout the season, each game broadcast will use cutting-edge cameras such as high-speed Phantoms, the high-resolution Megalodon, and more to showcase vivid, live-action shots, as well as immersive sound in 5.1 with spatial audio enabled.
“Friday Night Baseball” will also incorporate new on-screen graphics that include innovative new probabilities-based forecasts of different situational outcomes, plus highlights and live look-ins from around the league integrated right into the broadcast. During “Friday Night Baseball” broadcasts, fans can get on-screen callouts from Apple Music about batters’ walk-up songs, test their baseball trivia skills with Siri, and more. “Friday Night Baseball” will also offer rules analysis and interpretation from former MLB umpire Brian Gorman, which will be a first for MLB games.
In addition to two major games on Friday nights throughout the regular season, fans in the United States and Canada can watch MLB game replays, news and analysis, highlights, classic games, and more on new 24/7 live programming. Fans can watch “Countdown to First Pitch” every Thursday for a preview of the week’s upcoming games, as well as “MLB Daily Recap” every morning for highlights from around the league, both available only on Apple TV+, and the “MLB Big Inning” whip-around show featuring live look-ins and in-game highlights every weeknight, both available only on Apple TV+. Additionally, after each week’s live broadcasts, fans will be able to watch full games as well as condensed game replays on Apple TV+ on demand.
Fans can easily follow their favorite teams in Apple News and view personalized MLB highlights directly inside the app. Today, Apple News editors have curated an Opening Day preview, and every Friday, fans can watch “Friday Night Baseball” straight in the Apple TV app by tapping on a selected mix of highlights and stories from around the league.
Also, the exclusive playlists of batters’ walk-up music from teams featured on “Friday Night Baseball” each week, as well as a collection of classic baseball songs, are available on Apple Music.
“Friday Night Baseball” games will be available to anyone with internet access across devices where Apple TV+ can be found, including on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K and HD, and on tv.apple.com, along with smart TVs, gaming consoles, and cable set-top boxes. “Friday Night Baseball” will be available on Apple TV+ in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and for a limited time, without the need for a subscription.
