Apple announced today it’s bringing weekly baseball games to subscribers of Apple TV Plus.

During the company’s Peek Performance event on Tuesday, Apple boss Tim Cook announced that Apple’s streaming service will feature two Major League Baseball games on Friday nights during the regular season. Kicking off when the season begins, Friday Night Baseball will feature pregame and postgame programming.

Apple TV Plus subscribers in the US and Canada will additionally have access to a new 24/7 livestream with Major League Baseball replays, news, highlights, and analysis, as well as what Apple described as “a full complement of on-demand programming, including highlights and MLB-themed original content.” In addition, a new live show titled MLB Big Inning will air highlights on weeknights during the regular season.

Sinclair also wants to include MLB clubs in its proposed DTC product, but there are a couple of issues. For starters, MLB, which provides games to out-of-market fans through MLB.TV, is interested in exploring the launch of its own product for in-market streaming. Also, Sinclair only owns the DTC rights to four of the 14 MLB clubs it broadcasts on its TV channels.

Sinclair’s CEO Chris Ripley believes the company has reached the critical mass needed to pull off the DTC product. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred disagrees.

“Sinclair does not have enough digital rights from enough clubs in order to have a viable direct-to-consumer product,” Manfred said at the CAA World Conference in October.

In the U.S., a key question is whether anyone can secure enough rights to make all these regional deals profitable. Can Sinclair get more MLB team rights to add to its double-digit teams in the NBA and NHL?

On Sinclair’s 2021 third-quarter conference call, Ripley said his expectation was that as MLB teams renewed their cable deals, Sinclair would take in more DTC rights. Ripley also said more consolidation in the industry is possible.

“I do think, ultimately, adding in rights from other groups like Comcast and AT&T makes sense,” he said.