AppleTV+ to Televise Friday Night Baseball Doubleheader Starting in 2022 MLB Season

If there is a Major League Baseball season in 2022, some of the games will reportedly be broadcast exclusively on Apple TV+.

John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reported the streaming network will air weekly Friday Night Baseball doubleheaders as part of a deal scheduled to start during the upcoming campaign.

Coverage of the doubleheaders will be produced by the league, and they will be exclusively carried on Apple's platform and not by the team's local RSNs.

Ourand reported Apple's deal with MLB will also feature a 24/7 livestream for highlights and game replays and a highlight show called MLB Big Inning that will air every weeknight and include live look-ins to ongoing games.

The Friday doubleheaders will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

"We're prioritizing reach—we need to reach our next generation of fans and people that find themselves outside of the bundle," MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden said. "That is the most important aspect of this deal."

Of course, there has to actually be a baseball season for baseball games to air on Apple.

The league-initiated lockout is currently ongoing after MLB canceled the first two regular-season series of the year following negotiations in Florida.

Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the league told the MLB Players Association it could cancel another week of games if there is no deal in place by Tuesday.

Both sides remain far apart on the issues of the pre-arbitration bonus pool and competitive balance tax threshold. On Sunday, ESPN's Jesse Rogers reported the union's CBT proposal started at $238 million and increased to $263 million over five years compared to the league's proposal of $220 million increasing to $230 million over that time frame.

As for the pre-arbitration bonus pool, the union's offer was $80 million compared to $30 million from the league.