Major League Baseball made its much-anticipated debut on Apple TV Plus last week. To say fans hated it would be an understatement. They seemed to miss their hometown announcers, a smooth stream of the game, and well, just being able to see the game without a glitch.
I did not watch either of the doubleheader games live but did go back and watch a good portion of both via replay. I left with a mixed bag of feelings about the production, audio, camera shots, announcing teams, and the value of these broadcasts. Fans had many opinions for sure.
From checking out social media, I gathered many complaints from the audience that was watching the opening Apple doubleheader. They hit on a few central themes, one being the actual broadcast stream.
It’s never a good thing when the broadcast crashes midway through the game. That was the case with the Mets/Nationals game for many, if not all viewers. Fans were critical of a company like Apple not being able to provide perfect streaming of this game.
For me, the replay of the game didn’t have these glitches and the actual quality of the stream looked very good, if not excellent at all times. But, when you’re Apple, the tech giant, and you’re trying to convince fans of these teams to watch the game on Apple TV Plus, glitches, drops and audio problems are not acceptable. When the stream cut out, viewers got an error message that read: “There’s a problem loading this video. If this continues, check your internet connection.”
The free service went out shortly before 5 PM Pacific time for some viewers watching the Washington Nationals and New York Mets game. DownDetector.com reported a sudden spike in complaints of outages and inability to log in. Players that make errors like that are usually sent to the minors.
This should be an area of concern for those in Cupertino, California. Evan Roberts, the afternoon co-host on WFAN in New York, is one that is not on board with what Apple is doing here. He summed up what a lot of Mets fans were thinking and feeling last Friday.
It was reported that those viewing the game on their phone were able to see the action.
There were other reported technology issues. Fans were unable to use the normal playback controls afforded by an Apple TV stream. They couldn’t pause, rewind or fast-forward during the game.
Now, to the defense of Apple, the company did say that these controls were not supported during the Friday Night Baseball games on its site. Still, after reading many of the comments, this might be something Apple should look into. I’m not sure if there are MLB rules that prohibit this. To me this is a “would really love to have” rather than an “I’m not watching because of” situation.
The other major complaint was the announce teams. Some described using the mute button because of distracting, off-topic commentary. Instead of focusing on the game, viewers said the announcers talked about squirrels, Japanese restaurants, and even Apple Products. There were viewers that didn’t feel like the announce teams had baseball experience.
The main play-by-play people surely do have experience in MLB. Melanie Newman is one of the radio broadcasters for the Orioles. She’ll be adding some MLB Network duties this year as well. Stephen Nelson works for MLB and NHL Networks. So that should dispel the notion.
I think it’s hard for these broadcasters to live up to the mark that the local broadcasters make on their respective fan bases. A lot of comments on Twitter read something to the effect of “these guys aren’t Gary, Keith and Ron” (SNY’s New York Mets local crew).
No, they aren’t, but they never pretended to be either. I’ve always thought it was unfair to compare a national broadcast to a local one. The hometown announcers are around that team all year and in a lot of cases, for many years. Who knows how much access the Apple announcers had with each team?
I didn’t have the same opinion about the banter during the game. In all fairness, they were all working together for the first time as a team. Chemistry in that case doesn’t always come together quickly. It takes some time to feel things out and to see what everyone’s strengths are.
The only thing I will say about the broadcasters is that there was a little too much talk for a television broadcast. At times the games sounded as though they were being done on the radio. The action didn’t have a chance to breathe. In all fairness to the Mets/Nationals crew, the night got off to a rocky start at the stadium. At Nationals Park, the lights took forever to turn on and it caused a long delay. There was a lot of air to cover.
If Apple and MLB leave these crews together, it will get much better as time goes on.
A couple of other minor things that seemed to irk viewers included a constant graphic in the bottom right corner of the screen. The graphic had real-time probabilities, like for a player reaching base or a pitcher recording a strikeout. The graphics also included betting odds.
It was a little distracting to me. The graphics were very plain and at some points, they seemed to mix into the action and almost disappear. That information wasn’t needed for the entire game and might have been better served appearing on a ‘crawl’ at the bottom of the screen.
During the Mets/Nationals game, there was an ugly incident when Nats reliever Steve Cishek hit Mets infielder, Francisco Lindor, in the helmet with a pitch. The benches cleared and there were some heated exchanges. After Cishek was ejected, the announce team brought in rules analyst, former MLB umpire Brian Gorman for his thoughts.
I’m not sure where Gorman was coming to us from, but he looked like someone that had never used Zoom or anything like it before. He was looking down at the camera and there was a distractingly large amount of headroom in the shot. The info was good, but come on! The camera angle and presentation at that moment were very amateurish.
Speaking of cameras, the use of “the megalodon” is always very cool, but the use of the depth of field camera in Anaheim was jarring. Especially during Heidi Watney’s on-field report early in the broadcast. The camera kept circling her and circling her and circling her. I was getting nauseous.
Ok, Apple’s first foray into baseball wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t all bad. Aesthetically the game looked great from the Big A in Anaheim. The picture was crisp, the audio was clean for the most part and the cameras they used seemed to be extra-high def. The entire presentation was so clear that I forgot for a moment I was streaming this game.
One of the first things I noticed was just the plainness of the score bug. It looked primitive. At first, it looked out of place and I kept thinking, Apple paid how much again for these rights and this is what they’re giving me? As the game went on, I didn’t mind it all that much. It wasn’t too obtrusive or ‘loud’, so it was fine. It wasn’t constantly bombarding me with information, like the horribly obtrusive Bally’s bug that never stops.
It’s a lesson in, simple can be good and enjoyable. It was pointed out by some experts on Twitter, including Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group, that the graphics were very on brand with Apple. He indicated that the font used was one frequently displayed by Apple.
Staying with the positives, it was cool to hear and see Nationals superstar Juan Soto mic’d up for the game against the Mets. His personality is one that is needed in the game and he didn’t disappoint. The infectious smile and youthful exuberance can be something to attract younger fans without forcing things down people’s throats. He was interviewed during the light delay and pleaded with Apple to provide his teammates and coaches with Apple TV, iPads, iPhones and AirPods. Pretty funny stuff.
To many the first impression wasn’t great and as that old dandruff shampoo commercial says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But in this case, there is always another game, or in the case of Apple, games, to broadcast. It will get better, it has to, Apple has too much invested in the product. MLB needs this to work as well to keep the cash cow producing its milk.
There will have to be some changes to the Apple telecast. Give people what they want. Give them the ‘pause and rewind’ features they are used to having. Make sure that the glitches are taken care of and make it easy for fans of all ages and technological expertise to see the broadcasts.
All that’s left to wonder now? Will baseball fans give Apple TV Plus a legitimate chance to be one of the main carriers of Major League Baseball?
Right now it doesn’t appear its trending in that direction.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
