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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an updated version of This articlewhich ran for the Cubs’ most recent Apple TV+ broadcast last Friday, July 22.

In March, MLB and Apple announced an exclusive streaming deal for Friday night games. The schedule has now been released until the end of August, and the league and company say the games will be available for free until that date. There are no Cubs games scheduled for Apple TV+ in August.

Tonight’s Cubs/Giants game kicks off on the streaming service at 9:15pm CT. Apple’s announcers for this game are Stephen Nelson (play-by-play), Hunter Pence (analyst), Katie Nolan (analyst), and Heidi Watney (reporter). This is the crew that mentioned the Cubs/Diamondbacks game on Apple TV+ back in May.

While access to these games is free (at least until the end of August) and with no blackouts, you’ll still have to jump through a few hoops to watch.

Here’s your guide to watching tonight’s game.

You don’t have to pay (for now), but you do need an Apple ID

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you almost certainly have an Apple ID. The same is true if you have an Apple Music, Apple News or Apple Podcasts account, iCloud account, or any of the other Apple services.

If you still don’t have an Apple ID after all those choices, you can sign up here.

What kind of device do I need to watch this game?

You can, of course, watch on an Apple TV if you have one. But you can also watch on any modern smart TV where you can download the Apple TV+ app. Most TVs made in the last five years have this capability.

You can also watch on your iPhone or iPad, but you can also watch on an Android phone via the mobile browser.

Finally, on any computer with internet, you can watch in any browser. You can find the MLB game streams at tv.apple.com.

If you don’t have the Apple TV+ app on your smart TV, but you do have a Chromecast device (and if you don’t, you should buy one, they’re inexpensive and you can stream almost anything to your TV), you can. you can stream the game to your TV from any Chrome browser. If you have an HDMI port on your TV, you can install a Chromecast device. Many current smart TVs have Chromecast built-in.

Here is some more detailed information from Apple.

There are no blackouts

No, seriously, there are no blackouts. However, at the moment these games are only available in the following regions:

  • United States
  • Canada
  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Japan
  • Mexico
  • Puerto Rico
  • South Korea
  • United Kingdom

That should, I think, cover the vast majority of Cubs fans looking to watch tonight.

Streaming games is new to MLB and let’s face it, they do this for the money. Here are some things I DON’T want to hear about these games:

“The Cubs promised all games in one place with Marquee!”

No, no they didn’t. Granted, from 2014-19 Cubs games were on three local channels (WGN, NBC Sports Chicago and ABC-7) and it was sometimes difficult to keep track of which games were on those three channels. The Cubs TV schedule was the single most trafficked article on this site, each year for four consecutive years during that period.

But putting local games on Marquee didn’t stop MLB from including some games for national broadcasts. This was already the case before the launch of Marquee in 2020, when ESPN and Fox carried up to about 12 games a year. This is essentially the same, except that a number of streaming services have now been added to the mix, Apple TV+ and Peacock.

Ultimately, about 150 Cubs games will air this year on Marquee Sports Network, which is pretty much standard for all teams these days — that many on a local RSN, the rest on national channels. I will always put the TV channel for every game in every series preview and every game preview for you.

“I can’t get this game!”

Yes, yes you can. If you have an internet connection, you can watch this game. And for now it’s free. Tonight’s game is the last Cubs game scheduled for Apple TV+ until the end of August, and I know this: They don’t do games on Friday afternoons, so Cubs Friday games in Wrigley, which are playing all day for now, won’t be on. be Apple TV+.

Admittedly, there are people whose internet connections are too slow to stream. In 2022, however, this is a small minority of internet users.

“I don’t want to pay for baseball on TV anymore!”

Okay, this is a legitimate complaint. MLB, by opening more streaming services, will (eventually) ask fans to pay more to watch games. It is ultimately up to you whether you want to do this. Marquee is considering launching its own standalone streaming service, and Sinclair recently announced a standalone streaming service for games from (for now) the Royals, Rays, Brewers, Marlins and Tigers.

It’s not ideal for people who are probably already paying a ton for many streaming services, but that’s the way baseball is heading, perhaps at a disadvantage. No doubt MLB took the money up front, but this isn’t necessarily good for the long-term health of the sport.

In any case, you can watch tonight’s match for free using the method(s) described above. As mentioned above, there are no Cubs games scheduled for Apple TV+ in August, and their September schedule only includes one game that may have been picked up by Apple TV+, September 2 against the Cardinals in St. Louis. So there will be at most one more game on this streaming service after tonight.