Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of this articleWhich was preceded by the Cubs’ latest Apple TV+ broadcast last Friday, July 22.
In March, MLB and Apple announced an exclusive streaming deal for Friday Night Games. The schedule has now been released through the end of August and the league and company say the games are available for free until that date. There’s no Cubs game scheduled for Apple TV+ in August.
Tonight’s Cubs/Giants game will begin at 9:15 p.m. CT on the streaming service. Apple’s announcers for the game are Stephen Nelson (play-by-play), Hunter Pence (analyst), Katie Nolan (analyst) and Heidi Watney (reporter). This is the team that called the Cubs/Diamondback game back in May on Apple TV+.
While access to these games is free (until the end of August, anyway) and without any blackouts, you’ll still have to jump through a few hoops to watch.
Here’s your guide to watching tonight’s game.
You don’t need to pay (for now), but you do need an Apple ID
If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer, you almost certainly have an Apple ID. The same applies if you have an Apple Music, Apple News or Apple Podcasts account, an iCloud account, or one of the many other Apple services.
After all those options, if you still don’t have an Apple ID, you can sign up for one here.
What kind of equipment do I need to watch this game?
Of course, if you have an Apple TV, you can watch it. But you can also watch on any modern smart TV where you can download the Apple TV+ app. Most TVs made in the last five years have this capability.
You can also watch on your iPhone or iPad, but you can also watch on an Android phone with a mobile browser.
Finally, you can watch on any Internet-enabled computer in any browser. You can find MLB game streams at tv.apple.com.
If you don’t have the Apple TV+ app on your smart TV, but do have a Chromecast device (and if you don’t, you should get one, they’re cheap and they allow you to stream almost anything to your TV). ), you can stream the game to your TV from any Chrome browser. If your TV has an HDMI port, you can install a Chromecast device. Many current smart TVs have built-in Chromecast.
Here’s some more detailed information from Apple.
there are no blackouts
No, seriously, there are no blackouts. However, for the present time, these games are only available in the following regions:
- United States of america
- Canada
- Australia
- Brazil
- Japan
- Mexico
- Puerto Rico
- South Korea
- United Kingdom
That cover should cover, I think, the overwhelming majority of Cubs fans willing to watch tonight.
Streaming games are new to MLB and to be honest, they are doing this for the money. Here are some things I don’t want to hear about these games:
“The Cubs promised all the games in one place with the marquee!”
No, no they didn’t. Granted, from 2014-19 the Cubs’ games were on three local channels (WGN, NBC Sports Chicago and ABC-7) and it was sometimes difficult to keep up with which games were on those three channels. The Cubs TV schedule was the single highest-traffic article on this site every year in that time frame for four straight years.
But putting local games on the marquee didn’t stop MLB from taking some games for national broadcast. This was also the case before the launch of the marquee in 2020, when around 12 games a year were played by ESPN and Fox. It’s essentially the same thing, only now that there are a few streaming services added to the mix, Apple TV+ and Peacock.
Lastly, this year around 150 Cubs games will be played on the marquee sports network, which is pretty standard for all teams these days – many on local RSNs, the rest on national channels. I will always put the TV channel for each game in every series preview and every game preview for you.
“I can’t find this game!”
Yes yes you can. If you have internet connection then you can watch this game. And for now, it’s free. Tonight’s game is the last Cubs game scheduled for Apple TV+ until the end of August, and I know this: they don’t do Friday afternoon games, hence the Cubs Friday games at Wrigley, which are all-day games for now. , will not be on Apple TV+.
Granted, there are some people whose internet connections are too slow for streaming. However, in the year 2022, it is only a small fraction of internet users.
“I don’t want to pay more for baseball on TV!”
OK, that’s a valid complaint. MLB, by opening up more streaming services, is (finally) going to ask fans to pay more to watch games. In the end it is up to you whether you want to do this or not. Marquee is considering launching its own standalone streaming service and recently, Sinclair announced a standalone streaming service covering the (for now) games of the Royals, Rays, Brewers, Marlins and Tigers.
This isn’t ideal for people who are already paying a ton for multiple streaming services, but probably to its detriment with the way baseball is growing. No question, MLB does move money, but it’s not necessarily good for the long-term health of the game.
In any case, you can watch Tonight’s game for free using the methods described above. As mentioned above, there are no Cubs games scheduled on Apple TV+ in August, and their September schedule only includes one game that I can possibly pick up on Apple TV+, September 2 versus the Cardinals in St. . So, at most there will be another game on this streaming service after tonight.
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