The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Streaming services carrying two weekend games exclusivel­y.

- By Tim Tucker tim.tucker@ajc.com

Braves fans will have to look in unfamiliar places for telecasts of two of the team’s next three games.

Tonight’s game against the San Diego Padres at Truist Park will be televised exclusivel­y on the Apple TV+ streaming service, while Sunday’s game against the Padres will be shown exclusivel­y on NBC streamer Peacock with an unconventi­onal starting time of 11:30 a.m.

The games are the Braves’ first on Apple and Peacock, both of which have new broadcast rights deals this season with MLB.

The deals give MLB new ways to reach fans via streaming apps, particular­ly targeting young fans, as well as additional revenue. But the increasing fragmentat­ion of baseball broadcasti­ng raises concerns about added costs to consumers — although the Apple telecasts can be accessed free for now — and tends to frustrate some regular viewers who are unfamiliar with how to navigate the new platforms.

“I read social media like everyone else, so I understand what the fans are saying, but it’s happening everywhere,” said Rick Cordella, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Peacock. “It’s happening with entertainm­ent. It’s happening with movies. The pay-tv bundle used to have everything, and now … there’s a litany of other content that’s spread out across four or five of the biggest streamers. And sports really is no different.

“We hope at some point that Peacock is as ubiquitous as the pay-tv ecosystem and that this is a moment in time.”

At least for now, the new platforms will require an adjustment for Braves fans who are accustomed to watching games on Bally Sports South/ Southeast and, occasional­ly, ESPN, Fox or Turner.

Under their new deals with MLB this season,

Apple has two games every Friday night and Peacock one every Sunday for 18 consecutiv­e weeks. The games on Apple and Peacock won’t be shown on any other network, locally or nationally.

While today’s 7:20 p.m. Braves-padres game will be available on Apple TV+ without a paid subscripti­on, Sunday’s game will require a Peacock Premium subscripti­on (typically $4.99 per month). The games can be watched on devices, including smart TVS, where Apple TV+ and Peacock are available. (For more on how to access the games, visit tv.apple.com and peacocktv.com.)

Apple said its MLB telecasts will remain free for a “limited time.” Peacock said about 20 million premium accounts currently have access to its MLB package, including 13 million paid subscriber­s and 7 million “highly engaged bundled subscriber­s from Xfinity and other top distributo­rs, who use Peacock every single month and currently receive Peacock Premium at no extra cost.”

Melanie Newman, a Baltimore Orioles broadcaste­r, is scheduled to be the play-by-play announcer for tonight’s Braves game on Apple. She grew up in Woodstock. According to Apple, she is the second woman to lead playby-play duties for a national MLB broadcast team.

Former Braves player Brian Jordan, who is a member of the Bally Sports South/southeast broadcast team, and Yahoo Sports baseball writer Hannah Keyser will be the game analysts on today’s telecast, according to the Braves.

For Sunday’s game on Peacock, the play-by-play announcer will be Jason Benetti, the primary TV play-by-play voice of the Chicago White Sox, with analysis by former Braves star Andruw Jones and former Padre Mark Sweeney. Jones will be making his debut as a game analyst. Sweeney is a Padres broadcaste­r on Bally Sports San Diego.

Another adjustment for Braves fans this weekend is Sunday’s starting time, two hours earlier than normal for Sunday home games.

Peacock’s deal calls for its Sunday telecasts to start at 11:30 a.m. through June 12 and at noon after June 12. The early time slots appealed to Peacock because of the absence of competitio­n from other MLB games around the country for the first 90 minutes to two hours of the telecasts, but may prove less popular with fans attending in person.

“Look, there’s not a lot of exclusive hours around baseball,” Cordella said. “There’s a lot of baseball played each and every night, and trying to find where can you slot in an area where there’s nothing else going on for the baseball fan … was a key component of the deal.

“I credit baseball. We kind of came with this sort of crazy idea, and they kind of said yes. But it was always a big part of what we were trying to do.”

Baseball’s position on availabili­ty of games via streaming seems inconsiste­nt. Despite the league-wide deals with Apple and Peacock, the Bally Sports regional networks that hold 14 teams’ local TV rights are not available on popular streaming platforms such as Youtube TV and Hulu.

While Apple is new to baseball broadcasti­ng, NBC Sports, which is producing the Peacock games, is renewing its deep roots in the sport. Older fans may remember NBC televising 39 World Series and, for decades, a baseball “Game of the Week,” but the sport has been off the network since 2000.

“For a certain segment of the population, the only baseball game of the week was on NBC,” NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said. “We’re proud of that heritage. We’re going to lean into it. But we’re taking our own twist to it.”

One example is Peacock having two local analysts join Benetti on each week’s telecast, one associated with each of the teams in the game.

“We do think it’s an advantage to the fans being able to have some familiarit­y, yet get some fresh data and intel that they wouldn’t normally have,” Flood said.

Beyond this weekend, one other Braves game is scheduled this season on Apple — the June 3 game at Colorado — and no others on Peacock.

The middle game of this weekend’s Braves-padres series will be televised on Bally Sports Southeast and FS1 at 4 p.m. Saturday.

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