Whilst for the players and coaches the upcoming new season is heralded by reporting to Spring Training camps, for baseball fans the sign that the new season is on its way comes in the form of the MLB.TV subscription details being announced.
MLB.com published that information today and the headline is that it’s basically the same package, for the same price, as in 2013.
Two subscriptions to choose from
Once again there are two different subscriptions.
MLB.TV Standard provides live and on-demand access to HD-quality viewing of every single game of the MLB season. The annual subscription cost is $110, which at the current conversion rate is around £67.40 (slightly less than this time last year).
MLB Premium gives you the same features as MLB.TV standard but with the ability to use MLB apps to use your MLB.TV subscription on a host of different devices. For this, plus the ability to select either the home or road feeds (useful if you find one of the commentary teams annoying), you pay an extra $20 and this works out at just under £80.The subscription includes the At Bat 14 app for Apple devices, Android devices and Windows Phone 8, which otherwise normally sets you back £9-£10, so you’re effectively paying for the app by upgrading to Premium.
All games available
It’s worth stressing that whilst North American customers are blocked from watching local games (and ‘local’ is extremely widely defined in some areas) and various national TV games, we in the U.K. are not subject to these blackouts and can therefore watch any we care to enjoy. This includes all of the postseason games. That’s an important point to note as this isn’t mentioned prominently in the main MLB.com promotional materials due to it not applying to customers in North America.
Around 200 Spring Training games will also be available to watch, with the limitation here simply being that a lot of the Spring Training games are not broadcast on TV and therefore there is no feed to watch.
As well as watching the games, you can also listen to the home/radio feed. Normally you can buy a specific Gameday Audio subscription for approximately $20 that just provides the radio coverage, as well as in-game graphics, although details on that are generally released closer to the start of the season.
On which devices?
Going down the Premium route to be able to watch the games away from your PC monitor is a real plus, but it’s worth keeping an eye out on which of the listed devices will be available for UK customers.
Over 70 comments were posted on last year’s article here about the MLB.TV subscription details and many came from fellow British baseball fans reporting issues and solutions to connecting up to various devices. Please do post a comment if you’ve got any useful information and experience along those lines to help out.
The issue is normally down to whether the MLB app is available via the specific device, aside from the normal At Bat 14 app that will definitely be available on Apple devices, Android devices and Windows Phone 8.
In some cases it won’t be available in the UK, or you may need to find a workaround (such as changing the region settings on your Smart TV etc). There is a list on the MLB.com FAQs that’s worth consulting although probably stops short of confirming whether it will definitely be available on your exact Smart TV/DVD.
From my perspective, my solution a year ago was to buy a cheap Roku box. The LT version originally retailed at £50 but can be picked up for quite a bit less than this (for example, at time of writing you can buy one from PC World for £30) and the MLB app is available on this for UK residents.
That option has become even cheaper with Sky Now’s TV box. BSkyB bought a stake in Roku and their basic Sky Now TV Box is essentially a rebranded Roku LT available for just £10. Some apps are not available through the Sky Now TV Box that you can get through the standard Roku box, most notably Netflix, but the Sky Now TV complete channel list does include the MLB.TV app, so it should be fine for your baseball viewing.
Other coverage
There was some concern about the amount of baseball we’d be able to watch on TV when ESPN America disappeared on 1 August last year and was replaced by the ESPN channel as part of the BT Sport package.
Thankfully there was little difference in the number of live baseball games on offer with some, including most of the World Series games, actually being broadcast on one of the two BT Sport channels, so there will still be a decent TV option for baseball fans if paying for a baseball-only subscription is not for you.
There’s still no sign of any free-to-air coverage, unfortunately, although hopefully BBC Radio will be continuing their baseball coverage on 5 Live Sports Extra again this season.
A great way to follow the baseball season
I know I write this every year, but it really is true that if you’re a baseball fan and haven’t gone down the MLB.TV route before, take the plunge if you can and you’ll soon wonder how you ever got by without it. £80 for the Premium subscription is not loose change and the value for money comes from how much baseball you want to watch, or are able to watch, over the course of the year.
If you only want to catch a couple of games per week then you might not feel the expense is worthwhile and, if the option is open to you, a BT Sports subscription might give you all the want.
However, if the want to watch plenty of baseball throughout the year, particularly dipping in and out of lots of games over the course of an evening, then MLB.TV is a great choice to consider.
From Spring Training to the World Series, you get eight months of live baseball and even at four games a week (based on an average of 4 weeks in a month), you’ll get 256 games for your money at about 30p per game. And that’s before tacking on the on-demand games to get through the offseason.
My Premium subscription will be renewed automatically and I can’t wait for the games to get underway so I can dive into the feast of baseball once again.
I took Matt’s advice last year and bought MLB.tv Premium. It’s the best decision I ever made! If I got BT Sport, it would only have been for the Baseball and I wouldn’t have been able to watch my choice of games so since this is cheaper than BT and you get the app, which I just couldn’t do without during the season, this is an amazing deal.
To put it into context, NFL Game Pass costs £120 per year and any games shown live on either Sky or Channel 4 are blacked out. The fact we can still watch games being shown on BT and the much lower cost (one third less), makes this a much better deal when compared to that and I believe NHL and NBA also charge roughly the same as NFL.
My advice, but it NOW! Also, go premium, it’s well worth it!
Hi Clive. I think the choice of game part of it is a very good point to pick up in respct of you’re paying in part for the freedom to watch the games you want to watch.
If you support a team and want to watch every single game they play, that’s exactly what you can do. You’re not tied the whims of the TV schedulers, you can pick whichever games you want.
Hey Matt,
Casual Baseball fan here.
I found your thread after a popular search engine that rhymes with Joogle led me straight here. My query was on live games in the UK and how to view. I have Apple TV and actually purchased a licence in 2013 and benefited from using discounted gift vouchers to purchase. (Effectively 20% off). Being the father of a night party 4 year old and constantly shattered I found the dedication for 3hrs viewing tough to warrant the purchase.
However with Spring training comes renewed enthusiasm and again I have toyed with the idea of signing up and I must say you give a very compelling argument for subscription.
A comment on the thread led me to my recently purchased SKY NOW box and YES I find MLB.TV app…. promising…. then I open to find a ‘FREE GAME OF THE DAY” and I am intrigued and delighted at the thought of seeing some free baseball on demand.
Add to this the Free recaps of games I seem to get via MLB.TV on Apple TV and I have more FREE baseball than I could have hoped for.
Fingers crossed both free deliveries continue and I think I am set for my season.
HOpe someone finds this useful.
Keep up the good work, It’s not the first time a search engine has landed me here, your doing a great job for us UK fans!
Cheers !
Hi Paul
Thanks for the comment. Yes, there’s a free game pretty much every day so that’s always worth remembering if a paid-for subscription doesn’t quite fit in with your plans. MLB does a good job of putting together different offerings so that there’s something for everyone, dependent on budget, time and interest.
Matt
Hi Matt,
Just to say to anyone who is contemplating buying MLB.tv and not bought it before, I recommend you get it, and buy the premium package. The reason I think folk should go for the premium package, is because it gives the user full portability function, and the use of the superb At Bat app on iOS. Of course, on top of this, us folk in the UK are subjected to no blackouts.
I bought it yesterday and it only cost £81. Some people might think this is a sizable investment, but considering you get around 2,700 MLB matches, from Spring Training to World Series, I think it is a steal. Especially, when I pay around about the £600 mark to watch 149 EPL matches on Sky TV and BT Sport a season.
Ste
Good point on the EPL example. This would never happen – as the exclusive TV rights are worth so much money to the Premier League – but imagine if you could buy an annual subcription that gave you access to every EPL game.That’s what you get with MLBTV.
As an example, Sky allows you to buy a ‘day pass’ for Sky Sports to watch via their Sky Now TV and that costs £10 for a day. So for the cost of MLB.TV for a whole year, you’d get just 8 days of Sky Sport via that method.
hi
Based on comments last year, after looking at blu ray players and the roku i went
with the roku half way through the season(I had been put off by hearing you had to register the roku with a credit card but was told some smart tv’s want the same info
and i can honestly say i have had no problems with giving my details).I wish i had done this earlier as it has a great picture with no buffering,and i only have the basic £30 one.Also a couple of the other apps have podcasts of interest. Nowhere tv for
one has mlb intentional chat everyday plus a few mlb club and news podcast and ondemand.
I would also go premium not only for the use of devices but also the At bat
app and having tried the free game of the day a few times before taking out a sub you will make use of the extra features it comes with
thanks mike
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Yeah people listen to matts advice, I’ve been a premium subscriber to mlb.tv on my apple devices for 3 seasons now. The coverage and punch for your pound you receive is flawless, cant wait for it to start!! come on nationals!
Hi,
I’m an American who is very pleased this site exists. And though I am a current resident of Chicago, I am a native of Bethesda, Maryland, and thus a Washington Nationals fan. LET’S GO NATS!
Out of curiosity, what’s made you a Nats fan? Do you have any connections to Washington? Or was it Werth’s beard? Or Zimmermann’s expressionless Wisconsonian face?
Hi,
Based on Matt’s review & the positive comments I’m looking at signing up for the premium MLB tv package. I’ve had a look at the supported devices & can see that I can view games via the iPad, iPhone & ps4. Do you know if all of these methods of viewing can be used in the UK?
Also, are there any limitations on the amount of devices you can use on one subscription I.e. Do they limit your registrations to try & prevent account sharing? I want to use my ps4 to stream via the TV & then my apple devices for when I’m out & about.
Any help you can provide will be brilliant,
Craig.
Hi Craig. The iPad and iPhone will definitely work. I know in previous years UK fans using PS3’s have had to go down the route of making and signing in with a US PSN account as the MLB app wasn’t available with a UK account, so that may be the case again.
I’ve never come across a limit in terms of the number of devices you activate to use with your MLB.TV subscription. Maybe you can only use one at any one time though, it’s not something that’s cropped up for me but possibly I’ve never used two devices at once.
Craig, I often watch with about 3 devices at the same time! When the mets are playing I will watch through Apple TV on my main television then often have 4 games playing in mosaic view on laptop and maybe even a game running on the ipad. Pretty good fun doing this when there are a few games on and Mrs P has gone to bed!
The only limitation I believe is that you can only sign in on one WiFi network at any time, this stops account sharing.
Thanks for that, Ash. Useful to know.
Matt
Thanks for all the info! It’s good to know! I’ll be signed up for the start of spring training!!
Hi Matt. I have a problem with my Samsung TV – I used the MLB.TV app fine on it last season but at present the app (which shows as version 5.002, last updated 21/1/14) only offers me 2013 games. It shows “today” as 30/10/13 – the last day of last season. The calendar view does show February 2014 and so on, but if I click on today’s date – 27th Feb 2014 – in the calendar it throws up 27th Feb 2013! My subscription is fine – access via PC, phone and Kindle all work – so it must be the app. Even though it was updated in January this year is it still “out of date”, do you think? Any suggestions gratefully received. Richard
Hi Richard
Don’t know for sure, but definitely sounds like an app issue. MLB.TV had a variety of issues last night so it may be a temporary glitch that will sort itself out. Spring Training games aren’t available on every device so that might be another factor, although judging by the promo materials they should be available on a Samsung TV.
I’d suggest deleting the app and reinstalling (if you can do that) and then seeing if it works itself out over the next few days. Hopefully so.
Matt
Hi Matt, thanks for rapid reply! I have tried the delete/reinstall option with no luck, so hopefully you’re right about the app itself getting updated at some stage soon – at least before the regular season starts. If you hear about any other Samsung users with the same problem maybe you could start a thread or something?
I have emailed MLB.TV support as well and we’ll see if they’re as prompt in replying as you are!
Best regards,
Richard
Just another quick one, when you want to view the streaming on your apple devices do you do this via the at bat app? If this is the case do I have to wait for atbat14 (I think this is scheduled for release on the 25th) before activating at 2014 subscriptions mlb tv?
Hi Craig
Sorry, only just saw your message. Hopefully you’ve got the 2014 At Bat app downloaded and working now. Once downloaded you can just add in your MLBTV subscription details.
Matt
Pingback: MLBTV 2014 Spring Training games | BaseballGB
Is anyone getting a little anxious about the return of baseball to ESPN/BT Sport ?
The Baseball Tonight spring training roadshow is in full swing and no sign of the show on ESPN. The Sky EPG shows no Baseball programs for at least the next 7 days on any channel. I’m sure these episodes of Baseball Tonight were on last year – I remember Krukky & Kurjian on the bus.
Has anyone heard whether BT Sport/ESPN are indeed covering MLB this season ? Thanks
Hi. BT Sport confirmed on Twitter a while back that MLB will be on again in 2014, so no need to worry on that score. Not sure why no Baseball Tonight shows have been show so far other than other shows taking up potential slots for now
Hi Matt,
I went on my honeymoon in May last year 2013 and went to a couple of Tampa Bay games and fell in love with the game while i was out there. i umm’d and arrrr’d about getting the premium subsciption after i’d got back and in the end decided to go for it. I was really impressed with being able to watch the Rays in every game, whenever i wanted and think that AtBat app is brilliant.
My question though is, is the subscription charged at the beginning of every season rather than on the day you initially took out the subscription? I subscribed in July 2013 last year and the annual subscription came out again this month Feb 2014 (£77.76 – which is less than last year?).
Am i right in assuming that next year it would come out again in Feb before spring training games start?
Cheers
Craggle Rock (Go Rays – Got a good feeling about them this year)
Hi there
Generally how it works is that the MLBTV subscription details are announced near the end of the first week of February (Feb 4th this year). As all subscriptions are automatically set to renew (unless you contact MLB.com to cancel it), you then get an e-mail mid-February (Feb 15th this year) explaining that your subscription will renew just before the first Spring Training games, so you just need to check your payment details are correct and then there’s nothing else you need to do.
That’s how it’s worked in recent years so most likely will do so again next year. One of the benefits of the auto-renewal is that you get charged last year’s price (not an issue this year as the prices stayed the same, but nice if there’s a slight increase that you can put off for a year). The Premium price has stayed the same at $130, although for us it’s a bit cheaper just because the dollar/pound exchange rate has changed in our favour over the intervening 12 months.
Hope that helps. The AL East once again looks like being the most competitive division this season, but the Rays have a good chance to be in the thick of it and to make it the postseason.
Cheers
Matt
Hi, new on here.
I’m thinking of subscribing to MLB TV for the first time, what’s the score with watching it on PS3 in the UK? I’ve managed to get the app for it using a US address, but need to know if I subscribe I can watch it through this system. I say this, as my Mac computer is very slow and not the best device to watch live games.
Hi Luke
I know plenty of UK-based people used the PS3 with a US address to watch MLB.TV last year, including quite a few commenters on this article:
https://baseballgb.co.uk/?p=15367
So, subject to any change, you should be good to go.
Matt
hi Matt
can report the At bat app works well on the Tesco hudl if anyone is thinking of
buying one
mike
Thanks Mike, always good to get a first-hand report of MLBTV working on another potential device.
Cheers
Matt
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Hi quick question. Does at bat offer baseball tonight shows. If yes what subscription would i need to watch on my ipad.
Thanks in advance
Phil
Hi Phil. No, Baseball Tonight are ESPN shows and they’re not available via MLB’s At Bat app. I guess you could watch them live with BT Sport and their app, but I think that’s the only iPad option
Yeah thats what i thought will look into bt sport thanks for your help
Phil
Hi All,
This is slightly off topic … but … I’m just wondering if any of you guys are gamers & if so have you heard anything reliable about a UK release date of MLB The Show 14 on ps4! I can find release dates for the US & amazon.co.uk have it listed but there’s no preorder details etc! If anyone knows anything that’d be great!
Ps in terms of MLB.tv I signed up at the beginning of spring training & watched a few games on my iPad, shortly after I took the plunge & got an Apple TV (the expensive option I know 😔). Happy to report it works like a dream though, if anyone is in 2 minds it’s definitely worth the initial outlay!
Craig.
Hey Craig
For MLB The Show 14 on ps4 try 365games.co.uk, they have great offers for the games and last time I checked it was £44.99 with a release date of 9th of May 2014
So if you are still wondering about it check it out.
Cheers
Dale
Hi I’m really interested in the mlb tv I’ve usually had espn but like the idea of being able to watch more of one team can you watch the games whenever you like like or do you have to watch live .?
Hi. You can do both: watch live and on-demand. Games are normally available on-demand an hour or so after the game is over and it’s easy to change the settings so it hides the scores (so you can watch without knowing the score!). You can watch the games all year long, not just from the last 7 days etc, so with the annual subscription you can spend the offseason watching back any game you like.
Thank you are aware if it would work on a Kindle HD I have the at bat app
Yep, if you buy the MLBTV Premium you get MLB At Bat for free and can link your subscription to the app. You just download the Android version of the app onto your Kindle Fire etc and then normally you’re prompted to either buy the full app (for £12) which gets you radio commentary only, or to link your MLBTV Premium subscription to it.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?&c_id=mlb&affiliateId=mlbMENU
I know i am a little late in replying, but just to add to this post – if you can afford it, MLB.TV is amazing.
I bought it late last season (when they tend to reduce the price) and as Matt said, once you have it you will wonder how you got by without it. The quality of the apps is superb – the ipad experience is full featured and a great source of news, stats, highlights etc. I watch mainly on Apple TV where the app serves either live feeds or really good little 4 minute summaries of each game.
I wish I had found it sooner – it has made it possible to be a baseball fan in the UK and truly keep up with what is happening
Hi Matt, I read your posts about MLB at bat app a few months ago and found them very useful and informative in deciding to get it. I love the app. Thank you very much.
I pay monthly for it through PayPal. Will the automatic deductions stop after the season is over? Or better yet, will the deductions be suspended after the season and then start again when next year stars?
Thanks very much
Jim
Hi Jim – glad you found the posts and comments useful and that you’re enjoying the app. I don’t pay monthly myself so can’t say for sure, but MLB.com’s billing generally works by renewing unless you specifically stop it. So I would guess you’ll need to make a point of stopping the payments when the end of the season comes along (although don’t forget that if you’re outside of the US then keep it for October as non-US subscribers can watch the postseason games through MLB.TV)
Matt
CAN i WATCH A REPLAY OF ANY GAME, BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY i CANT STAY UP EACH NIGHT TO WATCH…….?
Yep, you can watch back any game after a short delay of an hour or so after it finishes
Great thanks……..intend to watch on my PC…will hook up tomorrow….. prob catch the third game of the Rangers against NYY…..cmon Rangers…………
Cheers Mate
Just been rekindled with my passion for baseball. Looking at getting mlb.tv premium. Is the payment for the rest of the season a one off? $24.99 whatever that is in sterling.
Cheers.
Hi. Yes, the $25 (approx £17) gets you access to every game for the rest of the season – including all playoff games for us non-US based fans – and then you’re able to watch games in deme and throughout the offseason
Hi Matt,
How does automatic renewal work? I hope you don’t mind me asking but are you still paying 2009 prices for MLB.tv Premium courtesy of automatic renewal?
Hi James – I’m just working from memory here, but I think in recent years it has been the case that an auto-renewal has been charged at the published price of the previous year. So you don’t keep getting the same old fee (e.g. 2009 again and again) but if there is a price rise from one year to the next you get a cushion of putting that off for a year. Prices have stayed fairly static in recent years, only really changing due to MLB changing the two packages they offer slightly. Obviously from our point of view the dollar/pound exchange rate also plays a part. So for example published U.S. prices for 2013 and 2014 were the same, but 2014 actually worked out marginally cheaper for us.
Cheers
Matt
Thank you for answering my question, it was very helpful. I was just wondering how far back the archives from MLB.tv go? I also became a fan of baseball in 1998, but haven’t followed MLB closely since 2005. The game appears to have changed a great deal. I noticed that you are sporting a minor league baseball cap. From what I gather, MiLB.TV is normally $39.95 yearly, but it costs just $20 if you bundle it with an MLB.TV subscription. Have you given it a whirl yet?
Looks like the archives currently go back to the 2010 season, although there are ‘classic games’ to watch from earlier than that (at least via the MLB.At Bat app, can’t immediately see them on MLB.com).
As for MiLB.TV I haven’t subscribed to that myself (my cap is actually a Great Britain cap) but I know people who have and love it. As you note, it’s very economical if you bundle it with the MLB.TV subscription, but like everything it depends how much use you’ll make of it. I’ve always suspected I wouldn’t actually catch many games (I don’t always find the time to watch as many MLB games as I’d like!) so haven’t taken the plunge as yet.
Hey Matt,
well, I’ve been interested in baseball for a little over 6 years now and i use to watch a game or two when it was on available on TV. But this year i decided to seriously get into baseball so i got the MLB.tv Premium package and its been fantastic, so i’ll will be renewing my subscription next season.
My question is do i need to purchase the offseason package to watch the games or are they inclusive of the premium package? The website is a little hazy casue it keeps telling me to buy it and i cant seem to get a decent answer on the matter.
Your help on the matter would be fantastic 😉
Hi Jay
If you signed up to the annual MLB.TV subscription, rather than monthly, then you wouldn’t need to buy an offseason package.
Essentially the annual subscription works on the basis that it will auto-renew you (unless you opt-out or stop it) just before the Spring Training games start at the beginning of March (the 2015 prices will come out in February). So it will either cut you off for the 2015 season at that point if you haven’t renewed, or you just carry on if renewed.
Hope that helps
Matt
Is the 2015 package available and what is the pricing like this year are you going to be writing another article Matt ?
Hi Umair – 2015 subscription article is now up:
https://baseballgb.co.uk/?p=18630
Hey Matt,
Just found your website very good and informative article by the way. I have an apple tv and I was wondering if it’s best to buy my MLB.TV subscription through there (where it tells me what the price is in pounds) or go to the MLB website and get it through that (where it shows it in dollars). either way I want to make sure I get the premium subscription not the standard one.
What are your thoughts?
Regards
Jon
Hi Jon. You can do it either way, buying through Apple TV or signing up on MLB.com and then linking your subscription. I don’t have Apple TV so have no direct experience to call on, but it doesn’t look like there’s any additional issues whichever way you go.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?product=appletv
Matt
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the reply, I think I’ll get it off the website as it seems cheaper than off the apple tv
Jon
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Hi Matt
Great website. Do you know if BT/ espn are covering the mlb in 2015?
Thanks
Ian
Cheers Ian. Yes, the BT sport 2015 ads showing the sports coming up (Premier League, MotoGP etc) have included MLB (with footage of Hunter Pence making an outfield catch, if memory serves correctly), so should be the same coverage again across BT Sport and ESPN channels.
Great news. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated. Ian
Is anybody else having problems logging into their MLB TV account through their Samsung TV?
Does anyone know if bt/espn will be showing any spring training games soon?
I doubt there will be many Spring games shown on BT/ESPN. The U.S. ESPN channel is only broadcasting 5 games, the first being on 19 March, so we’ll probably get those five at most.
http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2015/02/sportscenter-visit-30-mlb-clubs-spring-training-tour/