With 30 teams (29 United States and 1 in Canada) getting geared up for a new season of baseball action, the same can be said for sports fans around the globe.
If you’re not in a prime location to catch all the action, though, how can you get it beamed into your TV so you can soak it all up from the comfort of your sofa? Well, we’ve got the options you’re looking for, wherever you might be in the world.
If you’re in the US or Canada, the home of MLB, there are a handful of ways to catch the games.
In the US, the national MLB games' rights go to ESPN, TBS, FS1, FOX and MLB Network carry most of the action, so any provider with those in their line-up is a good start. You’re also going to need access to the RSN (regional sports network) that carries your local ‘in-market’ games to work around blackouts: AT&T, SportsNet and Yes are a few that do the job pretty well, for example.
In Canada, the channels you’re looking for are Sportsnet, TVA Sports, TSN and RDS. Once again, blackouts are an issue (of course), so you’ll need a local channel to cover your team’s games.
For the rest of the world, there are broadcasters with limited access to its league games and playoffs. But now, with StreamLocator cracking those geo-location blocks, all the baseball you can handle is on the table.
With cord-cutters looking for the most cost-effective way of watching the baseball, we’re all looking for who’s got the rights to broadcast the most games and which streaming services can get those matches into our homes and onto our screens as possible.
To crack the system from wherever you live, you’ll need a streaming package that includes as many of these as possible. If there’s an add-on for the MLB Network or MLB.TV, then that’s a nice little bonus.
Let’s get to the heart of the matter. Just who are those services?
We’ve got a selection of services to help MLB fans get their fill of the year’s action. Here are our prime picks:
What do you get from each, and how much do they cost? We’ll cover those important aspects to help you decide which is the best route is for you to take.
AT&T TV NOW carries almost all the regional sports networks that show the games of most MLB teams. In 2020 AT&T TV NOW carried 24 of the 30 teams, with masses of regional Fox Sports networks. We don’t envisage any changes there for the new season.
Given that most sports fans will follow a specific team, then the regional network that covers those games is a must. For the more general baseball fan, without a strong preference to the games they view, may well be satisfied with a package that plays the biggest selection of national out-of-market games.
That said, AT&T TV NOW carries FOX, TBS, ESPN, and FS1, so that’s as many bases covered (pun intended) as you’re likely to find.
Subscription is around $80 US/month and is available on all the expected devices and platforms.
Fubo TV has the regional networks you’ll need for the other 6 teams that aren’t covered by AT&T TV NOW. It also carries TBS and FS1 for national offerings. You’ll also get access to a few of the local Fox channels, so it’s worth checking into if they’ve got your region covered.
Given their subscription is a chunk cheaper than AT&T TV NOW at $64 US/month, that’s more money in your pocket over the course of the season.
Again, and as you’d expect, you can hook it up with apps on Roku, Amazon Fire TV devices, Apple TV, iOS, Android and all the usual suspects.
Sling TV only covers 2 team’s regional networks, but it does include TBS, ESPN, ESPN2, MLB Network, and FS1 for national games.
If you’re Oakland Athletics or San Francisco Giants fans, then this is good news, as the subscription for Sling TV’s service is a low $30 US/month.
Sling TV is supported on all the usual platforms and includes cloud DVR as only one of its additional features. Play and pause those magic moments, rewind the action, or simply record the games you can’t watch live for another day.
Here’s a curveball for you (more baseball pun fun for you there, dear reader), check out what Amazon Prime has to offer in the way of MLB.TV.
Offering only out-of-market games, Prime allows you to subscribe to MLB.TV for the same monthly fee as going direct to MLB.TV itself. In-market games are accessible 90 minutes after the game finishes, so if you can avoid your friends or the news updates, it’s a pretty good way to catch all the games.
ESPN+ offers live games too. However, just because it shares its name with the major ESPN channels, that doesn’t guarantee it shows the same games.
Depending on how much MLB action you need in your life, and whether its schedule covers the games you really want to watch, then the $5.99 US/month subscription isn’t painful to part with at all, all things considered. You’ll just have to do your research to see if it’s the right service for you.
With our suggestions and our smart-hub, you shouldn’t be far from having all that baseball action and excitement streamed into your TV with the least amount of fuss. If you’re having problems connecting to any of our supported services, just get in touch, and we’ll sort things out for you—it’s what we’re here for, after all.
If you want predictions on who’s going to top the league this year, or who’s worth a flutter, well, that’s not really our department. With all that unblocked sports coverage, though, we’re sure there are plenty of shows available, where experts in every genre will happily provide you with all the expertise and forecasts you could hope for.
