If you thought last season’s complaints over New York Yankees games airing on streaming services during Aaron Judge’s home-run chase were intense, you ain’t heard nothing yet.
Amazon and the Yankees announced Tuesday that 20 regular-season games will air exclusively on Prime Video. Just like last season, the games will be produced by YES Network and include their team of broadcasters.
While most of last year’s Yankees broadcasts on Prime aired on Friday, most of this season’s games will be on Wednesday.
The games will once again feature Amazon’s X-Ray technology, which lets viewers access live in-game stats, team and player details, and real-time play-by-play information for fans streaming on Android, iOS mobile, and Fire TV. Games will also be available for replay on Prime for 48 hours afterward.
And just like last year, these Yankees games will be available to MLB.TV subscribers outside of the New York market.
The full list of Prime Yankees games, which can be found here, includes:
- Tuesday, April 4 vs. Philadelphia Phillies – 7:00 pm (all times Eastern)
- Wednesday, April 19 vs. Los Angeles Angels – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, May 3 vs. Cleveland Guardians – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, May 17 vs. Toronto Blue Jays – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, May 24 vs. Baltimore Orioles – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, June 21 vs. Seattle Mariners – 7:00 pm
- Friday, June 30 vs. St. Louis Cardinals – 8:00 pm
- Wednesday, July 5 vs. Baltimore Orioles – 7:00 pm
- Saturday, July 8 vs. Chicago Cubs – 1:00 pm
- Wednesday, July 19 vs. Los Angeles Angels – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, August 2 vs. Tampa Bay Rays – 7:00 pm
- Friday, August 4 vs. Houston Astros – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, August 16 vs. Atlanta Braves – 7:00 pm
- Friday, August 18 vs. Boston Red Sox – 7:00 pm
- Sunday, August 20 vs. Boston Red Sox – 1:30 pm
- Friday, September 1 vs. Houston Astros – 8:00 pm
- Monday, September 11 vs. Boston Red Sox – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, September 13 vs. Boston Red Sox – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, September 20 vs. Toronto Blue Jays – 7:00 pm
- Wednesday, September 27 vs. Toronto Blue Jays – 7:00 pm
Last year’s Prime Yankees games were criticized as part of a larger discussion around pro sports leagues and franchises making deals with streaming services that require audiences to sign up or pay extra beyond their traditional cable packages.
Things reached a fever pitch during Aaron Judge’s quest to break the American League home run record when certain Yankees games were exclusively broadcast on Apple TV. The outcry eventually included stern rebukes from politicians despite the fact that it was free for anyone to watch the games.
If Judge ends up having another monster year, we’ll have to keep an eye on those August and September games to see what kind of Sturm und Drang awaits us on social media.
[Cord Cutters News, Amazon Prime]
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.