Home MLBBST Game Guides MLB.TV 2016 subscription details

MLB.TV 2016 subscription details

by Matt Smith

CovMLBTVHlSqMLB has announced the 2016 MLB.TV subscription options, offering us some new choices and a lower price to make their great service all the more appealing.

The key details are:

  • MLB.TV Premium price reduces by $20. Once UK tax is added, it will be $132 and that’s approximately £91 at current conversion rate. This allows you to listen to or watch all 2,430 regular season games live or on-demand, plus Spring Training games (at least 275 to be televised), plus all play-off games (the latter being available to us in the UK, but blacked out to US subscribers).
  • A new team-based subscription has been launched that allows you to listen to or watch all of the chosen team’s games at a reduced cost to the MLB-wide subscription. Including UK tax, that’s $102 or £71 at current conversion rate.

Further details

The subscription details can be found in full on MLB.com.

The most notable feature of the 2016 subscriptions is the new option to buy a team-based package that solely covers a particular team’s games. This has been added as part of the ‘Garber settlement’, which has come out of a legal case in the States about TV rights and MLB’s ‘blackout’ policy. You’ll notice on the MLB.TV subscription page that there are lots of bits about blackouts as they are now having to be even more explicit as to what U.S. subscribers will and won’t be able to watch when buying a subscription.

The Team subscription will cost $85 in the States. What that amounts to for us depends on the dollar/pound conversion rate at time of purchase, plus the fact that – as of last year – we now have to add tax on top. When you go to buy a subscription, it calculates the tax you’ll be paying once you change the country to ‘GB – United Kingdom’ (yes, that is a confusing heading and you’ll find it near the end of the drop-down list, just above United States).

The Team subscription adds $17 on top in tax for us in the UK, making the Team subscription $102 including tax, which as of time of writing is approximately £71.

The Garber settlement is also the reason why the MLB.TV Premium subscription price has fallen from $130 last year to $110 (the same price as the 2015 MLB.TV Standard service). MLB adds $22 on top for UK tax, making it $132 or approximately £91 including tax right now.

The MLB.TV Premium subscription includes the $20 MLB At Bat app. As in previous years, you’ll be able to download the free version of the app and then tie your MLB.TV subscription to it so that you can watch and listen to games on ‘connected devices’.

The one thing to note about all this is that it appears that the MLB.TV Standard package (i.e. MLB.TV on your PC, laptop or Mac) is no longer being offered. I would guess that the vast majority of subscribers paid the extra in previous seasons to have Premium anyway, but there will probably be some who have been happy to pay a little less and just to hook up a laptop to a TV. MLB seems to have addressed this through the Premium price decrease so previous Standard subscribers won’t have to pay extra.

As stated every year, what package to go for, and the value for money of them, is dependent on your own circumstances and how much you will use the subscription.

What can be said  for all is that, aside from the very occasional technical gremlin, you don’t have to worry about the quality of the service you are paying for provided you have a decent broadband connection.  MLB really were pioneers when it came to streaming live sport back in 2002 and it’s no surprise that a growing number of organisations, including the NHL, are signing deals with the underlying company, MLB Advanced Media, to capitalise on their expertise.

The games we can watch

The most important ‘value for money’ factor is simply how many games you have the inclination and ability to watch over the course of the year and therefore what use you’ll get from the subscription (I deliberately wrote year rather than season, as the subscriptions include off-season access to all games on-demand, which recent experience shows is a great help through the winter months!).

I round up all of the pre-midnight (UK time) working-day first pitches every Monday during the MLB regular season. This is on the basis that for the majority of people these will be the games that are most convenient to watch alongside the weekend contests as they take place during the British evening rather than in the early hours of the morning.

In the 2015 season, there were on average 10 ‘early’ games every working week, with three or four being shown on BT Sport and one or two being ‘MLB.com Free Games’ (i.e. games you can watch online even without a subscription). This average is based on 25 weeks of baseball and discounts the All-Star break week.

In terms of when you can catch games, over the course of a season the majority of ‘early’ games are on Wednesday or Thursday (69% combined in 2015), with Monday the next busiest day (primarily due to several U.S. national holidays), some on a Friday (the majority being games from Wrigley Field) and a handful on Tuesdays.

So even if you don’t want to sacrifice too much sleep, most weeks you’ll have a decent selection of games to watch live and you can also watch back any game on-demand in any case. Generally there will be a good five or six early games on a Saturday too, with pretty much every game on Sunday being a day-time (evening-time for us) contest other than the ESPN Sunday Night game.

Teams to watch

The Chicago Cubs’ emergence in 2015 as one of the best teams in MLB, with a host of exciting young players, was good news for baseball fans in the UK (apart from those supporting the Cardinals or Pirates, perhaps). They always come top of the ‘early’ game charts every year, and usually by a significant margin, due to the restrictions they are under at Wrigley Field in respect of the number of night game they can play.

Here’s a chart showing how many ‘early’ games every team was scheduled to play in the working week during 2015 (by ‘scheduled’ I mean the pre-midnight starts as of Monday for every week, so they include any rearranged games from earlier in the season, but not those rearranged at short notice, such as a game on Wednesday added due to a rain-out on Tuesday night etc).

2015MlbEarlyTeamsThe figures from 2015 generally fit the trend of previous seasons. The main exception to this comes in the Rays’ lowly ranking in 2015 as they’ve tended to be in the top ten of most early games played, so that may just be down to unique circumstances last year.

Team subscriptions

What baseball you plan to watch will go a long in determining whether paying the extra £20 to get the Premium MLB-wide service above a team subscription will be worthwhile.

Where the team-based subscription may be particularly appealing is for people who already pay for BT Sport. The TV coverage provides a decent selection of games to watch throughout the season, including the play-offs, so if the main benefit of MLB.TV is in allowing you to always catch your chosen team when you want without worrying about the TV schedulers picking the game, saving the £20 here might be worth doing.

There is one disclaimer on this: it’s not clear if the team-based subscription will include play-off games if your team makes it that far.

It’s understandable why that wouldn’t be boldly stated in the promotional details as it almost certainly wouldn’t be available to fans in the States, just as the post-season isn’t covered in MLB.TV Premium for them either. So, you might assume that as we in the UK get play-off games included in the Premium service, we would also get them for any play-off games played by our team in the team service.

However, that is just an assumption and unless that’s confirmed anywhere by MLB in the days ahead, be aware that it can’t be guaranteed. I’ll add a note here if that is definitively confirmed one way or the other.

Where you can watch

Both the MLB.TV Premium and Team-based packages allow you to watch games not only directly on a PC, laptop or Mac, but on a ‘connected device’ such as an iPad, Android device, AppleTV and so on. Some of these options are restricted based on territories so it’s worth checking the Connected Devices page on MLB.com for the latest information to check if it will definitely work on your device in the UK.

The comments on last year’s article here about the MLB.TV subscriptions, plus any comments added to this one, will offer some first-hand experience on what works and what doesn’t for us in the U.K. Note that some of the Connected Devices options will work in the regular season, but not during Spring Training.

All the baseball you could ever wish for!

Every year I write this article I have to repeat my comment that it is an absolutely wonderful thing that we have the option to follow MLB in this way nowadays.

Just fifteen years ago for most of us all we could watch was two games a week in the early hours on Channel 5 (although great TV coverage like Baseball on 5 is still much-missed, despite having MLB.TV).

Now we can watch whatever games we like, when we want to. £72 or £92 isn’t loose change, but if you love baseball then it’s a great investment and money well worth spending.

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75 comments

Roly February 14, 2016 - 7:14 pm

Hi Matt, seems like this time of the year comes round so quick!

Don’t know if you would know the answer to this, but do you think you would get the game recaps of all games if you only have a one team package?

I watch on Apple TV, and whilst I’d love condensed games (with commentary) to be available on that platform I’d settle for the recaps.

Thanks for the article once again, first place I look for details each February.

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Matt Smith February 14, 2016 - 10:29 pm

Thanks Roly. Not sure on the Recaps, unfortunately. You can watch them without a subscription via a PC/Mac at least. I normally connect to my TV using a simple Roku box and that gives me the Recaps (as you wrote, not Condensed games, at least not in previous seasons), but that’s been on the Premium subscription rather than this new team one. I guess without a clear answer from MLB then you’d have to assume only your team’s recaps would be there and then more than that would be a bonus.

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jose February 22, 2016 - 2:31 am

do you get mlb network with the subscription ?

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Matt Smith February 22, 2016 - 10:49 am

Nope, sadly not.

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Diane Evans February 24, 2016 - 2:59 pm

Hi Matt

Just discovered you while trying to find out the mlb tv subscription prices in sterling. I’ve just had an email from mlb stating that there is a $20 discount on subscriptions if we sort this out before 1 March. Do you know if this applies in the UK? I didn’t subscribe until the Fathers’ Day half price deal last year, but then I had BT Sport. Don’t have that now and can’t imagine being with a weekly dose of MLB.

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Matt Smith February 24, 2016 - 9:04 pm

Hi Diane. Not sure. What price are they quoting? I’m on the auto renewal for the season long Premium and that’s $110 at the moment, per the email sent out. I’d guess that’s the price on offer now. It includes the $20 At Bat app so maybe it will go back up to $130 in March, but I’ve not seen any mention of that elsewhere and would expect them to make more of it if that was the case.

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Diane February 26, 2016 - 8:54 am

The deal offered was $109, so not wonderful, although they’re saying it’s a $20 discount.

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Matt Smith February 26, 2016 - 12:48 pm

Thanks for that. Interesting that they’re calling it a $20 discount when 109 is the general price they’re touting anyway

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Arno March 4, 2016 - 12:23 pm

Is it legal that they add VAT to the subscription price in case of European customers? Are they going to pay the tax to the European tax authorities?

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Matt Smith March 4, 2016 - 1:28 pm

Don’t know how the money goes through, but it’s an EU thing so entirely legal. Basic idea is that a company should be charging the tax rate applicable to where the purchaser lives. So if it’s 20% tax in UK, that’s what a company should charge. It’s in part to tackle companies setting up in tax friendly places (Luxembourg etc) to get around the sales tax (I.e. The company doesn’t charge the tax as to where they are based, but where the customer is based)

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Scott March 4, 2016 - 2:21 pm

Anybody using the mlb.tv app on a Samsung TV to watch baseball?

I am having some issues – I can access games and watch, but the ‘time bar’ at the bottom of the screen “jumps” to the end of the broadcast and even when I use the clickable linescore to access other parts of the broadcast, whilst the broadcast jumps to the appropriate place, the time bar still stays at the end of the broadcast. Makes fast forwarding impossible and rewinding a big hassle.

This is the first time I have suscribed to mlb.tv and whilst I am really pleased with the picture quality, this ‘glitch’ is a total pain – I just wondered if anyone else was experiencing, or has experienced the same issue.

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Simon March 7, 2016 - 7:04 pm

Hi Scott. Exactly the same thing happening to me. I have raised a query with MLBTV forum, but don’t hold out too much hope. The strange thing is I still have an older 2011 Samsung model and this still plays fine. The glitch is is with a new 2015 Samsung I have just purchased. Hopefully there is a fix soon.

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Scott March 9, 2016 - 11:55 am

Hi Simon – thanks for the reply. It’s good to know it’s not just my TV – mine is also a 2015 model. I have been in touch with mlb and Samsung. MLB were not at all helpful – they just sent me a link to supported devices. Samsung did entertain me for a while, even asking me to send a video of the issue – however, they are now passing the buck and telling me to contact mlb. I think I will get back to mlb today and send them the video clip as well.

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Scott March 9, 2016 - 12:27 pm

I found your query on the mlb support pages – it is interesting to note that we have, more or less, the exact same model of TV. You have the 48JU6400, I have the 48JU6445, which I believe is identical in almost every respect but for some slight differences in the picture quality. I added a comment to the query and made note of the fact that I have emailed them a video of the issue. I see, just like Samsung, they want to immediately put the fault on the internet connection when it is obvious that this has nothing to do with the problem!

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Simon March 9, 2016 - 1:10 pm

Hopefully we can get the developers at MLBTV to sort quickly. Thanks for sending the video, I would have struggled to manage that !

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Scott March 10, 2016 - 10:16 pm

I have had an email from MLB support stating that the problem appears “to be related to the firmware, and an update should be released in the near future to resolve the difficulty”. I asked for something more specific than ‘near future’, but they are playing their cards close to their chest – they seem to suggest that the fix has to come from Samsung.

Nick June 20, 2016 - 11:54 am

Dear Scott and Simon,
I have exactly the same issues with my Samsung ue40j6270 2015 Model. have you solved the problems? Thank you!
Nick, Vienna

Paul March 5, 2016 - 8:56 pm

It all gives me a headache. Maybe someone could advise? My wife wants to watch one particular team. The individual subscription fits this but misses at bat premium features (I think) so the full version is the way to go….possibly.

What’s to stop someone entering a US billing address and paying by PayPal to avoid tax (not that I’m advocating it but seems an unfair system).

Finally is it easy to set up on multiple devices. I.e my wife’s iPhone and then the two Apple TVs in our house (that are in my username)? Not planning on watching multiple streams at the same time, just for ease of use depending on watching preference at the time.

Any advice would be gratefully received

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Matt Smith March 6, 2016 - 9:21 am

Hi Paul

I’m pretty sure the team subscription is still the Premium service, the only difference being that you can only see the chosen team’s games.

Not sure about the PayPal thing. It is a pain to pay it, but obviously legally we have to.

I can’t speak for the Apple TV setup, but certainly on the devices I use it’s very simple to set up. You add the MLBTV/MLB At Bat app and then follow the instructions from there as to linking your MLB.com account to it

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Ben Parker March 17, 2016 - 1:50 pm

Is it possible to watch different games on different devices?
Live in a shared house, Im a Jays fan my mate is a cubs fan so may have conflicting games.

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paul March 13, 2016 - 12:51 am

MLBTV is pants at the moment – worked fine till 8th March and then they have changed their streaming code so now doesnt work on many devices |(panasonic/sony/chromecast etc) – only need to see mlbtv forum to see the volume of complaints with no info on resolution or even apology – very very poor

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Phil March 16, 2016 - 5:01 pm

I have the same problem with my Panasonic TV and am now unable to view any games that have taken place since 8th March 2016. I can still view any games before this date but anything after and the screen just goes blank.
MLB support just aren’t interested and claim the TV must no longer be compatible or that I’ve changed the firmware. So why does it work for games before 8th March, no response when I ask what they have changed. Ironic that it happens 7 days after MLB have taken the subscriptions

One area of support did let slip
“As we do apologize for the inconvenience at this time we are currently experiencing issues with the Panasonic Smart TV. Please Provide the Firmware version for your Smart TV and the Model Number for your particular Panasonic.”

On supplying the model number they said it wasn’t on the list of compatible models. Not surprising given that they only list US and Japanese models. Appalling support they’re just not interested and I don’t expect to see if working again.

I’ll take a look at the Forum.

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Phil March 16, 2016 - 6:11 pm

Hi Paul I’ve just been onto the Forum that you referred to and chatted with an MLB representative, and at least for the Panasonic TV users there is some progress. I have tested it and can now view the Live games. They say that archive should work going forward which I’ll test tomorrow. But we’ve obviously lost the games from 8th-14th March.

Hope there is progress for you as well.

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Diane Evans March 17, 2016 - 3:17 pm

I haven’t signed up for mlbtv for this year yet, but did sign up last year. I have a 2013 Panasonic tv and all was well last for the most part. There was the odd occurrence of getting almost to the end of the game and then having an error message, which was a pain. Otherwise good. Hope there aren’t problems this year.

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Diane Evans March 21, 2016 - 1:50 pm

I have a question. I subscribed through Apple TV last year. I tried to subscribe again this year, but for some reason nothing worked. However, I now realise that the Apple TV subscription is more expensive than going through the mlb website. If I subscribe via the mlb website, am I going to be able to watch games on my TV? Is this the way that you all subscribe?

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Ian March 30, 2016 - 12:32 am

Can’t seem to Subscribe to MLB.TV on Apple TV. Click on £84.99 option for year. Next page just says “Success”, but when I try to watch anything, it just keeps coming back saying that I need a ‘Subscription’ to watch content & that I DON’T have access after all. Does anyone else know if there is an issue, at the moment, with Apple TV in UK. Spoke to apple support – who seemed perplexed with my issues and unable to find an answer – what do I need to do !!! Heeeelp….

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Diane April 12, 2016 - 12:42 pm

I had the same thing. Haven’t sorted it out as yet, but looks like someone else gave a good suggestion below.

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kazanja March 30, 2016 - 10:12 am

I subscribed through Apple and had a few issues at first but it seems i was logged onto another PC at the same time and it just would not let me on. I logged off all my Atbat, and MLB accounts on PC and apple products then tried again and it was ok. I’m not sure if i would subscribe through apple again though. I think you only allowed on a certain number of devices.

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Tom Stuart April 2, 2016 - 9:58 am

Hi
I just signed up to MLB premium here in Wales and while I can play archive games on my Moto X Style android phone the PC version keeps asking me to allows cookies or it won’t play. Cookies are allowed on all my browser’s! Any thoughts pls.

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Peter April 2, 2016 - 4:22 pm

Just to clarify,

If I do not have BT Sport and a game is on there, will I still be able to watch on MLB.TV or will it be a blackout?

Thanks

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Matt Smith April 3, 2016 - 10:50 am

Hi Peter. BT Sport coverage has never affected MLBTV in the past. So shouldn’t be any blackout restrictions.

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Reuben April 3, 2016 - 6:35 pm

Thanks for the info Matt. You mention the free game of the day MLB has offered in the past to At Bat subscribers who don’t pay for MLB.TV premium. I can’t seem to find the listings for these anywhere and it isn’t mentioned on the app. Are they not doing that this year? Thanks.

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Matt Smith April 4, 2016 - 10:45 am

Hi Reuben – They are still doing them, but they’re only picking which ones will be showed a few days ahead. The place to check is the Watch/Listen page on MLB.com

http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp?c_id=mlb&affiliateId=mlbMENU

There are no free games on Monday, but on Tuesday the M’s-Rangers game is free, Wednesday Rockies-DBacks.

UPDATE – actually, there is a game on Monday (Giants-Brewers).

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Jo Lenton April 5, 2016 - 1:15 pm

Hi. I have signed up for the single team package to watch the Mets this season. However I seem to be able to watch any game, not just the Mets. Am I missing something?! 🙂

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Matt Smith April 5, 2016 - 2:55 pm

Good problem to have! Were you watching live? It may be you can watch any game on-demand but only your chosen team live?

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Jo Lenton April 5, 2016 - 4:42 pm

Hi Matt

Yeah can’t complain!! I was watching a live game….!

Jo

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Matt Smith April 5, 2016 - 8:42 pm

Maybe it’s an early season glitch? Enjoy it while you can!

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Michael April 5, 2016 - 8:30 pm

Hey folks,

Sorry if I am asking a stupid question but have the condensed games dropped all together for this year?

Watched them last year on my £2.99 a month subscription but yesterday I could only get game recaps on opening days.

Pretty disappointed as I loved watching the Giants condensed games, is there any subscription where i can still get this?

Cheers
Michael

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Matt Smith April 5, 2016 - 8:48 pm

Hi Michael – Maybe depends what you’re trying to watch them on? I’ve just checked on my PC and the condensed games are listed alongside the Recaps and you just click and watch them without any log-in etc.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp?c_id=mlb&affiliateId=mlbMENU#date=4/4/2016

They show up on my iPad too if I open up a game and go to the highlights section for it. I have the subscription, but it doesn’t do the ‘looking up your location etc’ bit like it does when you connect to a live stream so I don’t think having the subscription or not affects that.

It can take a bit longer for the Condensed Games to appear just based on how quickly they can edit and publish them.

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Jose April 8, 2016 - 4:02 am

Hi

I have a few questions.

Overseas users have the same blackout problems that US users. I live in New Zealand, so before buying the subscription I want to be sure I can see the games I want without a problem.

I can’t see the single team subscription option you talk about in your post. When I go to MLB TV website, it says “coming soon”. Do you have any other link to check that info?

Cheers
Jose

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Matt Smith April 9, 2016 - 12:24 pm

Hi Jose

Overseas users do not have any blackout issues, so no need to worry about that.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlbtv/help-center/blackout-info.jsp

With the single team subscription, they’ve somewhat burried this for some reason. To get it you need to go to MLB.com, then go to the Team section and go to the team you support and want the subscription for. When you hover over the MLBTV heading (on the News, Video, Score etc bit) a sub-menu will appear and there’s three logos on the right. The middle one says “Only interested in [team] out-of-market games? Click here” and that allows you to buy the team package. Note that being in NZ you’re covered for all of the team’s games (the ‘out of market’ bit doesn’t apply).

That package is available now. The ‘Follow your Team’ service that says ‘coming soon’ is something different. That’s a U.S. service that will allow people who pay for the relevant local US TV package to also watch the relevant games via MLBTV (which normally they’d be blacked out from doing).

Hope that helps

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Jose April 11, 2016 - 2:07 am

Awesome Matt

Thanks for the info!

Cheers

Jose

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Seamus April 11, 2016 - 6:56 pm

Hi – any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have a subscription and can watch games on my laptop/iPad/iPhone but am wondering what the best way to watch them through my ‘normal’ TV would be.
Would an AV adapter from my iPad via a HDMI cable work, or would something like Chromecast be best?
Cheers,
Seamus

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Matt Smith April 11, 2016 - 9:16 pm

Haven’t tried the iPad route myself so not sure how smoothly that would go (maybe someone else can chip in). Certainly something like Chromecast or a basic Roku box can do the trick well without costing too much (the Roku box is what I use)

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Seamus April 11, 2016 - 10:09 pm

That’s brilliant Matt, thanks for the reply

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Peter April 12, 2016 - 5:55 pm

Can someone explain how to watch the free game of the day for free? It always ask me to subscribe for £2.99 a month to at bat, which doesn’t make it free!

Also, does the season price drop as the season goes on? ie If I leave it until the summer to subscribe will it be less than the current advertised price?

Thanks

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David April 13, 2016 - 12:45 pm

Hi Matt,

I followed your instructions to purchase the single team subscription (going through the teams section) but it only gives me the full premium and monthly options.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

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Matt Smith April 13, 2016 - 12:58 pm

Not sure what’s happening there. I tried the Oakland A’s one and it takes you to the MLBTV page and from there you can scroll down and select the team (below the Premium and the Monthly options) …
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?c_id=oak&affiliateId=clubMEGAMENU

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David April 13, 2016 - 4:51 pm

Thanks. I messaged them and apparently the single team option is only available in the US – maybe you have a US profile or something?

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Thom April 13, 2016 - 9:23 pm

Last year I purchased MLB tv at a heavily discounted price during the sale they had for Father’s Day in the US. Was last year a one off or have they done that before? And are they likely to run the promotion again this year?

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Peter May 2, 2016 - 11:53 am

Thanks Thom.

I watched the Free game of the day (for free!) on Yahoo! Sports on a laptop. I then got an email “for free game users” for 50% off. $54.99 which is about £35.

Also YouTube streams the free game of the day no problem on iPhone etc

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Mark July 6, 2016 - 10:19 am

I am currently paying the $29.99 a month for Premium Service but now want to go for full year(rest of the season) as I assume it will save me money. How do I do that please ???

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James July 16, 2016 - 8:50 pm

FYI – you can watch this if you have a playstation 4 by creating a US user for the PSN so that you can download the app. Instructions here

http://www.nowgamer.com/ps4-how-to-buy-us-digital-psn-games/

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Chris July 29, 2016 - 1:13 am

Hi there.
I’m a Cubs fan. ESPN/Bt Sport have this great habit of showing the first 2 games in a series and not the last. They could show other – delayed showings – of other games they couldn’t show live during the next day, but of course they don’t. They just repeat the same games they showed live over-night.
Anyway, my question (got there eventually) – I know the At Bat app lets you listen to all games live, but i can’t do that because I can’t be up and listening at 3am. So does the app allow you to listen to the commentary the next day?
I know MLB.TV does this for fully streamed games, but I just need audio. And MLB.TV is out of my price range.
I think I know what the answer is, but had to ask.
thanks for your help,
Chris

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Matt Smith July 30, 2016 - 10:57 am

Hi Chris – can’t say for 100% as I’m an MLB.TV subscriber (so can’t test it myself), but I’m pretty sure you can listen back to games after the event

Matt

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Chris July 30, 2016 - 11:27 pm

Thanks for the reply, Matt.
I’ve decided to wait a few more days and then just pay for 2 months of MLB.TV which gets me to the last games in October. Monthly is a rip-off but it comes to $60 rather than the $90 they want for the yearly subscription – and I don’t really see the appeal of paying for the off-season.
I thought, as a full MLB.TV subscriber, you got At Bat for “free” now. Or, is it something you’ve never looked at because, well, you don’t have to settle for a substandard experience? 😉
cheers
Chris

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mic July 31, 2016 - 10:43 pm

Mlb tv now $50 or there is gameday audio for $20 a year

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Chris August 7, 2016 - 5:46 am

actually it came down to $20 including the post season, so i jumped on it.
first i subscribed with At Bat monthly through the app. it doesn’t get you archived games to listen to whenever you want, unfortunately – just live radio coverage.
then i went over to MLB.TV and saw it was $20 to the end of the next billing season (end of next february). signed up, cancelled At Bat sub through Google. now I’ve got two months of Cubs games with no blackouts in 1080p, and the At Bat app plays all games live/archived with picture and/or radio coverage.
if you’re in the US or certain regions it’s more complicated, but i’m not and i got a great deal.
MLB.TV is so good. i’ll almost certainly subscribe again next year for the full season. They should give people a 2 week free-trial or something, because once you’ve tried it you can’t go back.
Chris

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Matt Smith August 7, 2016 - 8:59 pm

Hi Chris. They often do a deal or two as the season moves on, so always worth keeping a look out for. And you’re right, once you sign up it’s difficult to give it up! Enjoy watching as many games as you can!

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Steve Sumner August 14, 2016 - 12:06 pm

Hi Matt, I’m a Blue Jays fan looking to sign up to MLB.TV for what is left of the season. It looks like this is possible but I will take your advice. If I pay the 20-ish dollars in British pounds will it just convert it online? And will I be able to watch it through my Xbox one as well as my iPad. Thanks in advance – love the page, now that I’ve found it 👍🏻 All the best. Steve

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Matt Smith August 15, 2016 - 10:12 pm

Hi Steve – it will convert when you go to pay so you’ll see exactly what it will cost you (as noted in the original article, we have to add tax to it and post-Brexit the pound/dollar isn’t so good). The MLB.TV page states that you should be fine with your Xbox One:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?product=xbox

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mic August 26, 2016 - 10:09 pm

now down to $9.99-for ltd period

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Matt Smith August 29, 2016 - 1:51 pm

Yep, great deal!

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Steve M October 7, 2016 - 12:36 pm

Just a quick note to say thanks for all your efforts on the site. I just found it and it’s got some great stuff on here – anything that can get UK fans switched onto mlb.tv is a great thing. It really is addictive and awesome, with so much value across all teams, highlights and media.

I’ve had it for a while now and the last 2 seasons I’ve even managed to watch 60% of games with my beloved Pirates live. Yep, lots of yawning in the office. Love the audio options too, which I listen to on the nights I just can’t stay up. Or, I watch ‘as live’ on my second screen at work the next day, thanks to the nice touch of hiding score spoilers.

Anyhow. Enough rambling. Keep up the good work and here’s hoping my only open bet left of 2016 comes to fruition (amongst a few other flutters, I had £10 on the Nats to win the WS at 16/1). If not them, then I hope it’s the Blue Jays.

#AnyoneButTheCubsOrTheGiants

Ta, Steve.

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stuart October 13, 2016 - 3:26 pm

this has been my first year watching baseball but not sure if I’ll continue with it. I have the nfl game pass also & although that is more restricted (only one device at a time & no audio/radio feeds) I prefer it mainly due to the red zone & the ability to watch the nfl network channel.
am I missing something? is there no way of watching the mlb network channel? if it could. be added then I’d definitely stick with the subscription.

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Wendy October 15, 2016 - 10:18 am

I am a computer neophyte, desperate to watch post season while in Wales. I have an ipad with limited internet strength. I have a panasonic tv.

When I check mlb.com for live tv it says I need a TV provider, which i dont have in the UK.

Can someone please walk me through the steps to get the games. Right now I stay up all night to ‘read’ the game on MLB Gameday.

Go Jays!
Wendy

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Matt Smith October 16, 2016 - 5:32 pm

Hi Wendy. Outside of US, your viewing option is to sign up to the postseason MLBTV package for $10, which will let you watch all the rest of the postseason games live as well as Spring Training next March. You’ll need to create an MLB.com account as part of buying that. You can then download the MLB At Bat app on your iPad and link that to your subscription (I.e. Enter your email and password from your MLB.com account). Not sure if your Samsung TV allows you to download an MLB app do the same on that.

You can buy the subscription here:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?&affiliateId=mlbMENU

The tv link thing is just for people in the US (I.e. If they’ve paid for Fox sports etc then they can watch that through the app, if not then they won’t be able to and no point buying the subscription).

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Andy Lycett November 20, 2016 - 12:08 am

Hi, does MLB Akbar charge during the off season, do in need to cancel and restart for spring training?Thanks Andy

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mic October 30, 2016 - 11:38 am

hi
what happens with the World baseball classic next year on Mlb tv is it a separate package or part of the yearly sub or is it not available in the UK? cannot remember what happened last time & getting ready for the end of the W/S and the start of next year already

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James January 17, 2017 - 3:47 pm

Hi Matt. Is it any clearer if the team-based subscription will include play-off games if your team makes it that far?

I don’t have time to watch other teams.

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James January 17, 2017 - 3:53 pm

Do you get your choice of home and away feeds of each game in the team-based subscription? Does it include Spring Training?

Many Thanks

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Doug February 22, 2017 - 11:30 am

Matt, excellent breakdown. Thanks for posting.

Go Nats!

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Chris April 20, 2017 - 4:08 pm

Does anyone know if you can watch the post-season and world series with mlb.tv or is it only on BT :/

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Matt Smith April 20, 2017 - 8:38 pm

Yes, we can watch the postseason in the UK. It’s blacked out in the States, but included in MLBTV for us

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mic May 15, 2017 - 12:24 am

Mlb tv is $80 on offer at moment

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