This Friday’s Yankees game against the Orioles will no longer be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, like 20 games before it: The game will also air on the Yankee Entertainment and Sports (YES) network, according to a tweet of the cable network. It’s a big change, and it’s something Apple didn’t do last week, despite pleas from the New York Attorney General.
Many Yankees fans will probably want to tune in to the game as outfielder Aaron Judge could equal (or maybe even beat) a record for home runs it has been there for over 60 years. But the ability to watch the Yankees on YES has been a bit controversial lately; Last Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James appealed to Apple to make the game available on cable TV. Like Amazon, Apple TV Plus is the exclusive home for another lineup of baseball games, and James said it was a burden to use the streaming service for people used to watching the Yankees on YES.
To be clear, what’s happening this week isn’t exactly the same situation as at Apple. For starters, Amazon is an investor in YES with a 15 percent stake in the network, so playing games on both Prime and cable is usually a win-win, and YES has been heavily involved in producing the broadcasts that were aired on Amazon Prime. It can’t hurt that Friday’s game is the last in Amazon’s exclusive lineupso it doesn’t really set expectations for the rest of the season.
Another big difference is that Apple TV makes its games available for free to anyone with a web browser or smartphone, while Amazon’s streams limited to “Primary Members on the Yankees’ Home Team in New York State, Connecticut, Northern and Central New Jersey, and Northeastern Pennsylvania.” Prime costs $14.99 per month, or $139 per year, although you can only get a Prime Video subscription for $8.99 per month.
The move to air Friday’s game on both Prime Video and YES is largely a return to how things were before this year; in 2021 were games available on both Amazon’s streaming service and cable. Neither Amazon nor the AG office immediately responded The edge‘s request for comment. The game kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on Friday.