It’s been a curious launch for the 2019 MLBTV subscription details.
Usually there is a bit of a fanfare for it all, with a big promiment article on MLB.com. This time, there was a short news item made available on mobile devices on Wednesday/Thursday and since that point there’s been some confusion as to quite what is happening.
If you go to MLB.com on a PC web browser, there is currently no way to see details about the All Teams subscription and, just checking again as I type this, it’s now not even letting me click on the Teams subscription section (I tested it on Thursday and it did allow me to pick a team etc). EDIT 8/2 – MLB support are telling people to try a different browser, but that seems to produce mixed results too!
So who knows quite what is going on, but the main details have been announced one way or another so let’s work on the basis that there are a few teething issues in signing up for some methods that will hopefully be resolved soon.
The headline news is that the service once again means we can watch and listen to all the baseball we can find the time for and the cost has only increased slightly from last year. That may be all you need to know, but read on for some other news and views.
For those of us that are annual subscribers and are on an auto-renewal (which you get opted into, it should be noted) then payment will be taken from your card on or about 28 February.
All Teams price
As predicted a couple of days ago, the MLB All Teams package has increased by $3 to $118.99. We have to add VAT at 20% on to that to make for a UK cost of approximately £109-£110 (depending on your card/bank, you may pay a small overseas transaction cost too).
I say it every year in this article, but quite simply that’s a great deal for something that gives you access to Spring Training, all 2,430 regular season games (probably minus 20 or so Thursday day-games if Facebook renews their exclusive Thursday Free Game offering) and all of the play-offs (noting that we’re not caught by the US national and local TV blackouts that affect North American subscribers).
As always, value for money comes down to how much you use your subscription, but if you want to watch plenty of baseball – and why wouldn’t you?! – then it’s worth every penny.
Single team snub again?
Given the current sign-up issues, it’s not completely clear if MLB are continuing their frustrating policy of only offering the Single Team subscription option (i.e. solely giving access to games of a team of your choosing) to North American customers.
The advertised price for the U.S. is $91.99. If it was available to us then it would be approximately £85 (inc VAT). If you’re already paying for BT Sport and primarily use MLB.TV to ensure you can catch your team regularly then that £25 saving would be nice to have.
If it does tip you over your budget then don’t forget most week-days there is a Free Game to watch (admittedly not all at a convenient time for us in the UK) and the price comes down as the season goes on (with some public holiday themed offers too).
I had a go at creating a test account to see what would happen and it did allow me to pick a team; however, in previous years when you update the application details to show your address then the Tax section immediately updated to the correct amount, which it didn’t do when I tested it. It was at the same time previously that the system said the Team package wasn’t available in my location, so I do wonder if something’s a bit broken there currently. Hopefully the team package will be available, but take it as unconfirmed for now (I’ll update the article when further details come out).
Same old (good) stuff
In terms of the service itself, it’s pretty much business as usual with nothing really in the way of new features. As I mentioned in my preview, that’s not a surprise as it does what you’d want it to do, and does so well, although UK Braves Fan did throw out a good idea on Twitter that sadly hasn’t come true.
I’d certainly love the ability to download a game on to a mobile device, even if it was just time-limited as usually is the case on BBC iPlayer, although maybe that’s more a factor for those of us battling the time difference compared with people in the States? Anyway, that’s not on the cards as yet.
No MLB Network, for now
Neither is there an option to add MLB Network to the mix as hoped, for now anyway. I think it would be a popular addition at a reasonable price so hopefully that will stay on their agenda and become a feature at some point.
At Bat Premium and Connected Devices
As in previous years, MLB has a free At Bat app for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, and Amazon devices for news and scores, and then a Premium app that will give you the ability to listen to games live (i.e. radio coverage) all season long, but not to watch them. That doesn’t seem to be available yet, but in recent years has been £12-13.
However, don’t forget that if you’re buying the MLB.TV subscription you get the Premium app included in that (i.e. download the free At Bat app and then log in with your MLB.TV account details), so that’s how you can watch games live via the app.
Elsewhere, there are a host of Connected Devices on which you can download the MLB app for and then link your MLB.TV account to. It’s important to check the details on the Connected Devices FAQs page as availability of the MLB app on some devices is restricted to certain regions. The main thing this affects is PS4 owners who can’t get the app in the UK (other than using jiggery-pokery of which I of course do not endorse, but have a Google!).
XBox One, Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV should all be fine here though.
TV coverage
TV coverage in the UK will again be on BT Sport.
ESPN in the States are broadcasting a couple of Spring Training games (Pittsburgh-Boston on 6 March and Minnesota-Boston the following day) and both are going to be on BT Sport. You would fully expect the two A’s-Mariners Japan games to be on there too on 20-21 March before the usual broadcasting pattern (normally 8-10 games most weeks) begins from Opening Day on 28 March.
Broadcasting details for the MLB London Series officially have not yet been announced, although there have been reports of the BBC being interested in acquiring the rights.
Baseball, baseball, baseball …
Despite the rather low-key launch, all we really care about is that MLB.TV is available once again and at a price that thankfully hasn’t increased very much. If you have any queries about subscribing and how the service works in the UK, leave a comment and myself or another MLB.TV regular (of which there’s plenty of us) will do our best to help.
Matt,
I’m really confused. Last year, I just dowloaded the iOS App and watched the archived games because a) the app is something like £1.99 a month subscription and b)I just wanted to dip into baseball little as anew interest and din’t want to pay for a year subscription half-way through the season.
However, this year, I am ready to go all-in for a full subscription. Will it be possible to pay the whole fee upfront to MLB and then watch the dames through the iOS app, just paying the iOS £1.99 subscription charge?
Kind Regards
.
Hi Jason
Okay, so the starting point is that if you buy the full subscription you don’t need to pay anything extra to use it on iOS or any other platform. The cost of that paid-for app is essentially included in the full subscription price.
If you were starting from scratch, you’d:
1. Go to MLB.com, log-in/sign-up and then buy the All Teams package.
2. Install the standard MLB At Bat free app
3. Open the app and then sign-in with your MLB.com account details (quite where/how you do that varies depending on the platform).
The app on iOS (or any other devices you have) will then have your details stored and you’ll be able to watch/listen to games.
So in your position, if your monthly subscription is still active then you’d need to cancel that, then sign up for the All Team package. You definitely don’t need to pay anything on top, like the £2 monthly subscription charge. Hope that helps.
Thanks Matt. I’m glad I don’t have to pay an Apple subscription to use the app if I pay through MLB. The All Teams package sign-up page is now live for me – yesterday, clicking on the pay box didn’t do anything at all.
Cheers.
UPDATE1
I’ll update the main article as details become clearer and then add a comment in this section just to show what I’ve done.
1. MLB support has told others that they should try a different web browser if the package details aren’t displaying. I tried going to the MLBTV page on 1 PC using Chrome and it enable me to see the All Teams price and presumably to buy (I didn’t click the link and test that). Hovering the mouse pointer over the Team subscription option didn’t allow me to click on anything. Not sure, but it may be picking up geolocation and essentially saying you’re not from an area that can buy this one.
However, I’ve tried going to the same page using Chrome on another PC and it brings up the same error I had before (under All Teams it just says ‘best value’ and doesn’t display a price or something to click to buy). So still none the wiser on that!
Matt, thank you for doing this wonderful blog for UK based Baseball fans.
I’m really sorry, but I’ve not had enough years at the school to understand quite how the whole thing works from scratch. Please can you help me?
I’ve got two sons who bit the baseball bug in Japan. They’d like to be able to watch the yakult swallows and MLB games. We have a smart TV and a now TV box but no current subscription to anything. I’d consider a bt sport subscription – is that an instead of or an as well as an MLB.tv subscription?
In general, i don’t think they’ll be watching live (something to do with sleep), but they like the idea of being able to watch whole games when it suits.
Please tell me – where do I start? BT? MLB.tv? Both?
Hi there
Depends on your situation as to the best way to go, so these are the options.
MLB.TV is the pure baseball option. You can buy the subscription online and then you should be able to download a free MLB app onto your Now TV box (I don’t have one, but I believe they’re essentially a Roku box – which definitely does work here) and you can then sign into your MLB.com account (which you’ll create when you buy the subscription) on the Now TV MLB app and it will link to your subscription and allow to watch/listen to games from there. All games are available live or on-demand, so easy to watch full games even without giving up sleep! You just need to check the settings on your MLB app when you start using it as that will allow you to change options like displaying scores of completed games (i.e. so you can look for and start playing a game without finding out the score!).
BT Sport is the direct TV option. It depends what TV provider you use (Sky, Virgin Media, BT etc) as to the cost and exactly how you buy that. That’s a wider sport subscription so in terms of value for money it will depend on how many of the other sports they show you’d want to watch. MLB you usually get 8-10 games per week, and whilst quite a few are late night, they tend to replay them the next day and depending on your TV box you may well be able to record them anyway to watch them back at a more convenient time.
You wouldn’t need both to watch MLB (nothing you get on BT Sport that you can’t watch through MLB.TV, other than some extra stuff like some Little League and College baseball games at a couple of points in the year) so BT Sport really is your option if you prefer the value for money in terms of them showing other sports you want to watch. Otherwise MLBTV is the way to go to watch the baseball. Usually nearer the start of the season they add the option to pay monthly rather than the full annual price in one go if that would be a help, although unsurprisingly that works out more expensive so if you know you’ll want it for the season then – if possible – paying upfront works out the best way to go.
Unfortunately there isn’t a good/legal way to watch Japanese league games, as far as I’m aware. Hope this helps anyway.
Thank you so much – that’s really clear. And also thank you for confirming about Japanese games.
Hi Matt,
From what I gather by reading past comments, you use a fairly old Roku to stream the games.
Under Roku | Requirements it states the following:
Supported Models:
2400X, 2450X, 2500X, 2700X, 2710X, 2720X, 3000X, 3050X, 3100X, 3400X, 3420X, 3500X, 3600X, 3700X, 3710X, 4200X, 4210X, 4230X, 4400X, 4620X, 4630X, 4640X, 5000X, 6000X
Do you have one of the above?
The reason I ask is because Apple TV | Requirements states the following:
Supported Models:
Apple TV 4 and 4K device models.
It appears that my Apple TV 3rd Generation HD Media Streamer is no longer compatible with MLB.TV in 2019. Unlike NFL Game Pass,the app still works on my Apple TV 3rd Generation, but as far as I know the app hasn’t been updated for the 2019 season yet (not showing spring training schedule yet. Still showing World Series). I contacted @MLBFanSupport and they kept stating the same company line as the website, obviously just reading off a script.
I noticed last season that Apple TV 4 and 4K device models had some added MLB.TV features that Apple TV 3rd Generation didn’t possess. I get that for optimal performance that Apple TV 4 and 4K device models are recommended, but I’m shocked that Apple TV 3rd Generation appears to be obsolete. The games worked like a charm on my ageing device last season. I thought MLB.TV would want as many customers as possible.
It’s a shame because I really wanted to sign up for the product. Unfortunately, I can only watch on my Apple TV 3rd Generation.
If you take the following page at face value it also seems like some other older devices have been phased out too:
https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/help-center/connected-devices
Hi Jay – yes I’ve had my Roku box for quite a while (actually probably 7 years or so, now I think about it!). I checked Roku’s website and their latest models including the £25-30 Roku Express state that they support MLB.TV. That was one of the things that initially attacted me to the Roku in that their website made quite prominent that they supported MLB.TV. I now tend to use my xBox as my streaming option so haven’t checked recently if my old one still works.
Very annoying if your 3rd generation Apple TV won’t work. I don’t know what goes into those decisions and quite how much it’s an MLB thing or how much it’s an Apple thing (I’ve got a fairly old iPad that now won’t play nicely with lots of things too, so probably a bit of both).
Also, is ‘Pitchcast’ a new feature? Is it only available on certain devices? Does it work for archived games?
The Boston Red Sox NESN broadcast is my favourite broadcast because it tracks the location, type and speed of every pitch. Pitchcast appears to do the same thing for all the games.
Pitchcast
Track the location, type and speed of every pitch LIVE. Follow the balls and strikes on overlay. See if you can spot when a pitcher is tiring.
Yes, Pitchcast may be new as I’ve not seen it before. From memory there was one new feature they added last year that was only available on Apple TV, although not sure if it was Pitchcast (don’t think so).
with regards a Roku had no problems through the last 7 or 8 years the last couple of years using a stick version.But just before the start of nearly every season there always seems a bug of some sort for the first couple of weeks or is it just me?
went to use it last night and for some reason i had to log back(never before) it! all went fine and games play but hide scores and favorite team etc from settings seems not to work.Contacted customer support and the reply was that a Roku update is coming for spring training – so fingers crossed
p.s see someone ask about a NOW tv box on the Now home page click help/help centre in the question box ask what apps available and via the link MLB is listed
How did you contact customer support if you don’t mind me asking? I have been trying to contact them via email for 2 weeks and they have not replied to me.
Hi – funny i used email as well got an auto reply to say received when i sent it Sunday night and a answer Monday evening.I was logged into my account at the time if that makes a difference but might be worth trying again?
They used to have a Forum as well but it seems to have been taken down since the last time i looked or i missed the link to it
Hi,
Sorry if I’ve missed this but usually they tell us on what day we will be charged? I now live in Sweden so I need to send money to my UK account but I can’t see what date it will be charged.
Thanks for your help
If you’re doing an auto renewal then MLB.com says they’ll bill your card on or around 28 Feb
I have a NOW box and I bought it originally just for the MLB app..never had any problems with it.
Good to know, thanks
Hi Matt.
A bit of advice please, i originally paid the subscription and watched via my Xbox360 app in 2017. Unfortunately that became unavailable last season and so i watched it via Atbat on my tablet which was okay in terms of streaming quality with the occasional buffer/freeze etc. however i got a bit sick of having to watch it on a small screen and so as i recently bought a ps4 i thought i’d try the workaround to download the MLB app as there is no option to for the app on UK versions.
Everything seems to open up fine and let me log in etc. however when i’m trying to watch some of last seasons games the app keeps majorly stuttering and freezing. I dont want to renew my subscription if this is going to be the case all season so i just wanted to see if you had any ideas how to prevent this and if not, what is the best alternative way for me to watch it on tv?
Thanks Alex
Hi Alex – I don’t have a PS4 so can’t offer first-hand knowledge, but I do know most years we find that the MLB app is flaky early in spring training on various systems (several times we’ve got to the start of spring training but it has resolutely kept the schedule on the final World Series game!). So if your PS4 is streaming other things fine then it may just be a temporary issue with the MLB app that will work itself out as updates are sent through.
If it’s not playing ball (to coin a phrase!) then something like an Amazon Fire stick (usually around £40) or even a Roku Express Stick (usually around £25) both state that they should work fine in the UK. I don’t have the Express Stick but I’ve used a Roku box in the past and that’s worked a treat. For £25 it might be worth a go even as a handy alternative. Let us know how you get on.
Brilliant , thanks Matt. I’ll see how it goes early doors as everything is fine on my tablet, and then if the P4 app isn’t working too well i’ll get a Roku stick/box.
Used a Roku stick Plus last year which is a bit dearer then the express and it worked fine so would think an express will be ok (used the box before also good)
Did post last week that i was having problems with some of the settings but had been promised an update by customer services
Went on there to night and got an error message but noticed there was an update on the 13th.So i deleted the app and reloaded it and then logged back in(normal after some updates).All looks fine settings are back and last years games play so just need spring games to start to give it a test
Thanks micc, always useful to share some first-hand experience.
hi matt – i have mlb at bat on my amazon firestick – downloaded the app for free last season and could watch one free game a day – any idea if this is available again this season – no free games coming up on the app for spring training – im not sure if i just need to wait for the regular season to start and the free game of the day will kick in or whether i need to purchase the at bat premium service (the option to buy this doesn’t come up at the moment on my logon on the firestick at moment) – thanks
Hi Paul. Nothing officially announced, but they’ve been doing the Free Game of the Day for several years now so hopefully no reason for that to change in 2019. They haven’t done it previously in spring, although I think they may do a couple of free days just as a taster for new subscribers.
hi matt – yeah free game of the day is on mlb at bat on amazon firestick again for the regular season and very often at good times for the uk – by the way im in san francisco at beginning of june and taking in an A’s game v astros
Hi Matt,
I haven’t been able to watch spring training on my apple tv 3rd generation, it’s still showing last seasons games after updating.
I was thinking about purchasing a NOW TV Smart Box with 4K. It has an ethernet port, which is a deal breaker for me (the Roku Express & Roku Streaming Stick + don’t have an ethernet port). It’s Roku powered, but under Roku requirements it states the following:
Supported Models:
2400X, 2450X, 2500X, 2700X, 2710X, 2720X, 3000X, 3050X, 3100X, 3400X, 3420X, 3500X, 3600X, 3700X, 3710X, 4200X, 4210X, 4230X, 4400X, 4620X, 4630X, 4640X, 5000X, 6000X
Does anybody know the NOW TV Smart Box with 4K model number? I’m 99.9% sure it’s not listed above. Has anybody been able to watch 2019 spring training games using Now TV?
Hi Jay
Might be worth holding on for a week or so …
https://twitter.com/jimbojobson/status/1100447295479472129?s=21
“I’ve had this reply from Mlb Matt..some of your readers may be interested… Please note that Apple TV3 is currently unavailable for the 2019 season, however we will have an update to support that device in early March”
Thanks for the update. I really appreciate it. I’ll keep my fingers crossed
Hi Matt (and everyone else)
Just found your site while looking for some help with mlb.tv / AtBat and it looks great – nice to know I’m not alone in my love of baseball in the UK!
For the first time this year I let my yearly mlb.tv subscription auto-renew (I usually re-subscribe manually before the renewal date) and ever since it did my AtBat app says I can’t use video / audio because my subscription doesn’t include it and try’s to get me to sign up to another subscription via my iPhone. My subscription definitely includes access to AtBat.
I have emailed mlb.tv customer service who helpfully sent a massive generic email that told me to log-in to my account and all would be fine. I replied to them pointing out that if they had read my original email they would know that i was already logged in – it just didn’t work! I have changed my password and re-installed the app but no joy.
In desperation I went to good old Google and found your site and was wondering if you or any of your readers had any ideas please?
Hi Mike, I’ve had a few temporary issues like that but they’ve worked themselves outs. Initially when I reinstalled AtBat on my Android phone it still prompted me to Buy after I’d logged in, but it cleared itself soon enough and is now working. It may perhaps depend on how old your iPhone is as I know there hasn’t been great compatibility with older versions of iOS, although MLB has stated that this will be fixed in due course
Hi Matt,
I’m very interested in watching the cardinals after attending a game in August 2018 (they’re now my team), obviously the single team subscription isn’t available in this country, but if I purchase the full package, will I be able to watch everyone of their games that I can stay awake for, and then catch up on the late late night ones the day after through the archive?
I have an android phone and plan on sending the stream via my Google Chromecast, to the telly don’t suppose you know of many issues surrounding this method do you?
Many thanks
Andy
Hi Andy – yes, the full package will allow to watch every game live or on-demand (whether Cardinals or not). I haven’t don’t Chromecasting myself but others have said that it’s worked fine, so hopefully that should be okay too.
Hi Matt, i’ve just purchased MLB.TV at bat via google play and wanted to test it by watching some historic content but even though i’ve received a Google Play subscription confirmation, MLBTV keeps telling me i’m not subscribed?
Is it a case of taking a few hours to register when purchasing this way? I’m a bit concerned i’m going to miss opening day and was thinking of cancelling the google play subscription an re-purchasing directly from the MLB.com website? I dont remember there being a delay when ive purchased in the past and really don’t want to miss opening day.
Cheers
Alex
Ignore the last message Matt- im up and running….roll on the first pitch!!!!
Cheers Alex
Hi Matt! This is so helpful thank you. I miss baseball so much. If I get the All Team subscription to MLB.TV can I watch from the UK on my laptop? I’m not great at tech. But I miss those Cubs games. Thanks in advance! Hannah
Hi Hannah. Thanks! Yes, once you subscribe you can watch games via your laptop. Just go to the MLB.TV Watch page and click on the game/broadcast you want (or use the calendar to navigate to previous days to catch-up on games from earlier in the season)
https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games
I’ve been an MLB subscriber for ten years, however I decided to not renew this year as I’m an IPTV subscriber so I can get SNY TV (I’m a mets fan) on that.
The ability to not be able to record SNY is annoying me though as I’m missing night games.
Does anyone know on MLB tv if they’ve re-introduced the ability to skip an inning on archived games (ie after the last out of the bottom of the 1st, press one button to go straight to the top of the 2nd) on any (or all) of the following:
– Android tv
– Amazon firestick
– PS4
This was one of my main bug-bears. On ps4 you used to be able to just press R1 and it’d skip straight away but then they got rid of it.
Thanks
may not be much help – but you can pick an inning from a menu using a Roku also using my Roku stick using rewind & FF will bring up a time bar with the number or half inning
Hi Matt, Quick question.
In 2016 MLB Insider emailed out a 50% discount for MLB.TV on the 29th April taking the price down to $54.99, then in 2017 they did the same on the 12th May with the pirice then being $56.49.
I never saw a discount code for last year and i cant afford the $118 a year annual subscription so i never had MLB.TV last year.
Have i missed any discount codes for this year?
Cheers Mate
Andy
I have MLB at Bat on my tv box.With the app I can’t scroll down the games to pick out a game if it’s near the bottom, off the immediate screen view. I have tried to watch games via the web browser but it insists I use the android app. Has anyone else worked out how to scroll down the page please?
Thanks
Rob
Not quite sure what you mean but using a Roku or the app on a Samsung tv you see a list of games for the day by date laid out in a box/grid format you just need to use arrow keys for up/down or right and left to pick a game then once selected push ok to view game
Hi Matt,
I have MLB AtBat with the Audio Subscription, I know I get the free game of the day broadcasts but I am wondering if I will be able to watch Postseason games using this level of subscription.
Hi Ian. No, you won’t get playoff TV coverage with that subscription; however the cost of MLBTV significantly decreases this time of year so, depending on your budget that might still be an option for you. They don’t really publicise it as their main customer base (Americans) is blacked out from watching national broadcasts via MLBTV, but we can.
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Hi Matt, I want to watch the Mets games on my iPhone. I’ve purchased a monthly subscription from Apple iTunes for £21.99 per month that does the job but I was wondering if there is a cheaper way to watch? I don’t fully understand what the difference is between MLB TV Premium that I pay for and just MLB TV yearly at $59 per year? Do I need the MLB Premium channel? Thanks Mark