Batter Up: The best ways to watch baseball on your digital devices

05.04.2012
The 2012 Major League Baseball season is now under way, and tech-savvy fans have more ways than ever to stream high-quality video and audio at their command, whether it’s pulling out your iPad on the train home, checking your Android phone at the gym, or using your Xbox 360 for more than just late-night Skyrim.

After taking stock of what’s available this year, it’s clear that MLB Advanced Media, which oversees digital development and app R&D for the league, concentrated more on tweaking and upgrading the overall user experience rather than throwing in more glitzy features. That’s not to say the developer should have, as the offerings were plenty impressive already, providing multiple video feeds, crystal-clear HD, access to a wide range of platforms, and so forth. But it’s the smaller aesthetic changes, combined with a revamped business model, that will benefit users the most.

MLB continues its successful multi-tired subscription model, albeit with a slight uptick in prices. But the killer upgrade this year is MLB’s embrace of the “buy once, enjoy anywhere” mentality. By applying that thinking to its most invested users, many consumer will actually save some bucks.

The pricing structure is simple to grok and more universal than before. The , is $15 across the board; one purchase works across all like-minded platforms. So $15 on your iPhone also gets you the iPad version. Android users can pay $15 for access on their compatible Android phone, tablet, and Kindle Fire. (There is also a BlackBerry and new Windows Phone 7 version of the At Bat app.) Every app purchase comes with real-time scoring updates and unlimited home/away radio streams throughout the season.

If you want audio streaming on your PC/Mac, that’s separate and costs $20 for the year. But for those who also want unlimited video streaming, there are two subscription tiers. For $110, you get the basic home team video feed on your Mac or PC for each game that isn’t blacked out. (Basically, you won’t be able to watch local in-market games, since they’re theoretically being offered on a TV channel in your area. Red Sox fans in Boston, for example, wouldn’t be able to watch the Old Towne team on their computer.) That’s all you get.

For just $15 more, the $125 Premium package gets you a slew of extra functionality: home/away video feeds, like Apple TV and Xbox 360, and free access to the At Bat app. Aside from this being the better value, the app access is a much-welcome inclusion. Just log in to your browser, mobile, or connected device with your MLB.com account info and you’re good to go. You no longer have to spend extra dough for the mobile version, as in years past.