The 2021 MLB season is starting soon. Here are the best video streaming services for watching all the baseball games and coverage you could want.
The Los Angeles Dodgers will begin defending their 2020 World Series title on April 1, 2021—MLB’s Opening Day. This year, we expect a complete 167-game season. Last year’s schedule, of course, was shortened due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Don’t want to miss a single inning? Our guide covers the best video streaming services for watching all of the MLB games from the opening pitch of the season to the last out of the World Series. How to Watch the MLB Without Cable If you’ve gotten rid of cable, fear not: You can still watch all the baseball you want with a live TV streaming service. To watch every game during the regular season, you need to make sure your streaming service offers ESPN, FOX, FS1, MLB Network, and TBS (certain games overflow to TNT), as well as your team’s regional sports network (RSN). More on those in a moment. ESPN will show games on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday night. FOX will air some Saturday night games leading up to the MLB All-Star Game on July 13, as well as the 2021 World Series. FS1 will televise games on Tuesdays and Saturdays. MLB Network will carry MLB Showcase games and select simulcasts of local games. TBS will show 13 weeks of Sunday afternoon games. You can keep up with the 2021 MLB schedule via the MLB’s official site. Unlike NFL games, not all MLB games air on national channels. To ensure coverage of all your local team’s games, you need a service that includes your local RSN. Three media companies own most of the RSNs that carry MLB games: AT&T (SportsNet), Sinclair (FOX Sports, soon to be called Bally Sports), and Comcast (NBC Sports). None of the streaming services offers every RSN, but you only need to worry about the RSN that shows your local games. Use this list of MLB coverage to find which RSN handles broadcasts for your local team. You can use The Streamable’s Channel Finder tool or go to each live TV streaming service’s page to see the available channels in your location. Aside from channel coverage, you should consider other factors when choosing a live TV service, including its price, streaming resolution, DVR capabilities, and support for simultaneous streams. Serious baseball fans may benefit from add-ons like MLB. TV (which we discuss in a later section). Note that coverage blackouts and other restrictions still apply to video streaming services. Navigating coverage restrictions and trying to find the RSNs you need to watch your favorite baseball teams in action can be a challenge, but this roundup should make finding the right streaming service a little easier. Cable and Over-the-Air Options for Baseball One way to make sure you catch as many games as possible during the regular season is to sign up for a cable plan. Cable plans are usually more expensive than streaming subscriptions, but some packages might have some channels in your area that you can’t get with a video streaming service. If you have a cable subscription, you can watch games from any device by signing in to the dedicated ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, and TBS apps with your cable credentials.
