Major League Baseball has always presented the biggest hurdle for sports-loving cable-cutters. Unlike the NFL, which still airs the bulk of its games on broadcast TV channels, MLB is a predominantly cable league. Of the six networks hosting nationally aired games over the 2024 season—Fox, FS1, ESPN, TBS, and the MLB Network—only Fox can be accessed over the air. Additionally, MLB is again partnering with Apple TV+ for “Friday Night Baseball,” a weekly doubleheader streamed exclusively by the service.
Watching locally televised games has been even tougher. Most teams have deals with a regional cable-only network, such as Bally Sports or NBC Sports. Cord-cutting baseball fans have stood a better chance of connecting with a Spencer Strider fastball than catching their hometown team on broadcast TV. That’s finally starting to change as more streaming TV services expand their offerings. Several streaming providers now include regional sports networks (RSNs) in their channel packages.
The 2024 MLB season gets underway in Korea when the Dodgers and Padres face off in the Seoul Series from March 20-21. All 30 clubs are slated to play on Opening Day, Thursday, March 28. Here’s a look at your options for catching all the action:
This story was updated for the current season. For even more information on streaming Major League Baseball, don’t miss the March 28 issue of Cord-Cutter Confidential.
Sling TV includes ESPN in its channel lineup as well as NBC Sports regional content in select markets, allowing some fans to watch their hometown teams.
Over the air
Since broadcast baseball has largely gone the way of the Sunday doubleheader, there are few options for watching any game without a subscription of one kind or another. The Fox network, however, can still be had for free with a good TV antenna. That will give you access to a bunch of nationally broadcast Saturday-afternoon games.
If you’re purchasing an antenna for the first time, remember to first check to see which stations you can receive in your area and which type of antenna you’ll need to pull in your local Fox affiliate. You should also check our recommendations for the best TV antennas.
Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+
Apart from buying a TV antenna, your least-expensive option—and the only way to get Friday night games—is to sign up for a subscription to Apple TV+. That costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, but it gets you to a wide array of other streaming entertainment, including hit shows such as the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks-produced Masters of the Sky, a series about WWII bomber pilots in Europe, and the mind-bending Severance.
Apple TV+ is probably an option only for fans who need to see every single game, but at least it doesn’t cost a lot, and there’s lots of other entertainment to be had. T-Mobile customers on a Go5G Next plan, meanwhile, should take advantage of the opportunity to get both Apple TV+ and MLB.TV for free.
DirecTV Stream
If you have Fox broadcast accounted for via an antenna, you can catch all the rest of the MLB action with a DirectTV Stream subscription. It’s the service with the most regional sports network coverage overall, including the Bally and NBC Sports regional networks, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, New England Sports Network, YES Network, and Spectrum SportsNet LA. DirecTV Stream also offers ESPN, FS1, TBS and MLB Network.
To get this bounty of baseball riches, you’ll need the “Choice” package for $108.99 per month (currently $98.99 a month for the first three months).
Fubo
The once soccer-centric streaming service offers a fair amount of baseball-broadcasting channels including ESPN, Fox, FS1, and the MLB Network. It also includes a selection of RSNs including the NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California networks and Marquee Sports Network. To get them all. you’ll need the Pro package for $79.99 a month (there’s a 7-day free trial for new customers) and the Sports Plus channel add-on for an additional $11 a month.
Hulu + Live TV
Hulu offers a single, flat-fee package that includes more than 90 live and on demand channels—including the ESPN, Fox, FS1, and TBS—plus regional sports networks in select areas. You get them all, in addition to Hulu’s original content and its streaming library, for $76.99 a month with ads or $89.99 a month without.
Sling TV
Sling TV offers ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, Fox, and FS1, as well as NBC Sports for local-team broadcasts. If you want them all in one package, though, you’ll need to step up to the top-tier Sling Orange + Blue option (basically Sling’s two individual packages combined and offered at a discount) for $60 a month, with half off of your first month.
To sweeten the offer, Sling TV typically includes device discounts with prepaid commitments. Currently, you can get the AirTV Anywhere + OTA Bundle for $89 when you prepay for 3 months of Sling TV.
Major League Baseball is making it a little easier
for cord cutters to catch their favorite team’s games.YouTube TV
Like Hulu, YouTube offers a flat-fee package of more than 100 channels for $72.99 per month ($62.99 per month for your first three months). The channel lineup includes Fox, FS1, ESPN, and TBS, but not the MLB network.
MLB.TV
An MLB.tv subscription can get you a lot of baseball, but blackout rules still apply.
The league’s official streaming service offers live streams of every regular season out-of-market game, with perks like multi-game viewing (up to four games at once), in-game highlights, and a free subscription to the At Bat Premium app.
Note the phrase “out-of-market,” though. MLB.TV is not a true cord-cutting resource. It was really designed as way for transplants—a Red Sox fan living in Seattle, for example—to watch their former home teams. Local broadcasts remain subject to blackout rules, so you won’t be able to watch your hometown ball club live on TV this way.
That said, MLB.TV remains a valuable option for dyed-in-the-wool seamheads to catch virtually every out-of-market game broadcast—home or away—throughout the regular season. And if you’re not particular about real-time viewing and can avoid social media and other potential spoiler sources, you can watch replays of your local team’s games on demand 90 minutes after the game’s conclusion.
A full MLB.TV subscription, which gives you access to all 30 teams’ games—minus those of your local club’s—is $29.99 per month or $149.99 for the year. (We can show you how to score a $50 discount.) There’s also a single-team option that lets you follow a non-local squad of your choice for $129.99 per year. And once again, many T-Mobile subscribers can get MLB.TV for free.
Play ball!
Major League Baseball is finally stepping up the plate and giving cord-cutters more options to watch the Grand Old Game. We’d still like to see it offer more free streaming options of marquee matchups; until it does, you can take advantage of these cable alternatives, along with our guide to second-screen baseball apps, to make sure you catch all the action on the diamond.
Author: Michael Ansaldo, Contributor, TechHive
Michael Ansaldo is veteran consumer and business technology journalist. He’s been a contributor to TechHive since 2013, covering robot vacuums, home security cameras, and other smart devices. He previously served as PCWorld’s Small Business Editor, and his tech coverage has appeared in Wired, Macworld, Mac|Life, Mobile Magazine, Enterprise.Nxt, Executive Travel, and other publications.