I am a Chicago Cubs fan who lives in southeast Michigan. When I first moved here in 1989 I couldn’t watch the Cubs unless they were on national TV, so I did take an interest in watching the local Detroit Tigers broadcast. When the MLB.tv and MLB At Bat app became available I could again watch every Cubs game and therefore I don’t watch as much of the Detroit Tigers. I also tend to not watch the national broadcast games.
All of the above is background to me wondering just how successful the streaming of “national broadcast” games will be on Apple TV. Fourty years ago there were more national broadcast of baseball games at a time when there were no regional nor local broadcasts and no Internet streaming. Baseball does not have the same national draw as the NFL and the Cubs play every Friday. I doubt this will happen, but I’ll be really mad if they don’t stream the games in MLB.tv on Fridays.
So, for myself, the only time I will watch the Friday night games on Apple TV is when the Cubs play, and I suspect most other people will do the same. I just don’t see this working out well for Apple, particularly when Apple decides to block access to only Apple TV subscribers. Right now people do not subscribe to Apple TV to watch baseball. MLB will probably be ok because I am sure they are getting paid by Apple regardless of the number of viewers.
In the meantime I read that the NFL might start their own streaming service, so I wonder whether I will be able to see more Green Bay Packer games?