Streaming and Your Favorite Baseball Team

What’s a fan to do when there are seven different broadcasters and streaming services showing baseball games this year? Here’s how to watch your favorite teams in the Age of Streaming. 

Spring is here, and so is baseball. But before you settle in for Opening Night, there’s a new question every fan needs to answer: What channel, platform, or app is the game even on tonight?

This season, national MLB games are scattered across seven different broadcasters and streaming services. Local games require a separate subscription. And the cost of watching everything adds up fast.

“This has been a problem for quite a few years now, and it’s generally getting worse,” says Kavitha Davidson, a sports writer and journalist. “It feels like this year will be a test of what people’s tolerance will be.”

Get out ahead of the problem early and you’ll be more likely to catch more games. Here’s what you need to know.

National Broadcasts

This season’s nationally televised games are spread across seven outlets:

• Fox / FS1 — Saturday games, plus the World Series. Fox is free with an antenna; FS1 requires cable or a Fox One subscription ($19.99/month).
• ABC / ESPN — Sunday games on ABC, midweek on ESPN. ABC is free with an antenna; ESPN requires cable or ESPN Unlimited ($29.99/month).
• NBC / Peacock — “Sunday Night Baseball,” new to NBC this year. NBC is free with an antenna, but some games are Peacock-exclusive ($10.99/month).
• Apple TV+ — “Friday Night Baseball.” Requires Apple TV+ ($12.99/month).
• Netflix — Three exclusive games, including Opening Night on March 25. Requires Netflix (from $7.99/month).
• TBS — Tuesday nights, plus the ALDS and ALCS. Requires cable or HBO Max ($10.99/month).
• MLB Network — Games throughout the week. Included with most cable packages or with MLB.TV.

Local Games: Your Regional Sports Network

Most games — well over 100 per team per season — aren’t on national TV. They air on your team’s regional sports network (RSN). To watch, you have a few options:

• Traditional cable or satellite — Check whether your package includes your team’s RSN. Coverage varies by provider and market.
• Fubo — Generally the best live TV streaming service for RSN coverage. Plans start around $80/month.
• DirecTV Stream — The most consistent alternative to Fubo for local team channels in most markets.
• Hulu + Live TV / YouTube TV — Both have scaled back RSN coverage in recent years. May or may not carry your team’s channel — check before subscribing.

Team Streaming Apps: The New Option

Twenty-two of 30 teams now offer their own direct streaming apps, letting fans watch local games without any cable subscription. Some notable ones:

• Yankees — Gotham Sports App; includes YES Network and MSG Network.
• Red Sox — NESN 360; $29.99/month.
• Mets — SNY subscription pass, available through the MLB App.
• Braves — BravesVision, new for 2026.
• Many others (Diamondbacks, Padres, Twins, and more) — Blackout-free local streaming through the MLB App, from $19.99/month.

These apps only work in the team’s home market. A Yankees fan now living in Florida needs MLB.TV instead.

Want to get the lowdown on streaming services and smart TVs?  Senior Planet regularly offers free Zoom webinars on cutting the cord and more.  Get the details here!

Out-of-Market Fans: MLB.TV

If your team plays in another city, MLB.TV streams every out-of-market game all season. It costs $149.99/year (or $134.99 if you already subscribe to ESPN Unlimited) and is available through the MLB App or ESPN App. T-Mobile customers get it free with select plans.

One catch: MLB.TV blacks out your local team’s games. For those, use your team’s app or RSN.

A bundle combining your team’s local app with MLB.TV runs $199.99/year — about a 20% savings.

Not Sure Where Tonight’s Game Is?

The Yahoo Sports and Apple Sports apps both have “Where to Watch” features that identify which service is streaming any given game. MLB.com also has a blackout restrictions checker — enter your zip code to see which teams are considered local for you.

The Bottom Line

No single subscription covers everything, and yes, that’s frustrating. Start with your team’s local app or RSN, add MLB.TV if you follow an out-of-town team, and pick up whichever national streamers carry the games you care about most.

And if the subscription maze gets to be too much? Don’t overlook the oldest service there is: your local sports bar. There’s something to be said for walking in, seeing the players take the field, and not having to remember which app it’s on. And there may be no better feeling than celebrating a walk-off homer by high-fiving people you only met a few innings ago. That’s the beauty of being a fan — don’t let anybody take it away from you!

YOUR TURN

What do you think about all the streaming options for baseball? How are you following your favorite teams?  Let us know in the comments!

 

Eric Goldschein is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York, specializing in real estate, business, technology, and sports. His work has appeared in Realtor.com, NerdWallet, Business Insider, and other national publications. A former NBA intern and sportswriter with over a decade of experience in journalism and content marketing, Eric specializes in turning complex topics into accessible stories for consumer audiences.