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This week on PCWorld: MLB.TV is how baseball streaming should work

Jared Newman   |   April 4, 2025

Okay, I know some of you don’t care about sports and I swear this is the last baseball streaming column I’ll write for a while. But as a Yankees fan living in Cincinnati who also sort of roots for the Reds, I’ve had a unique window into two baseball streaming worlds that I felt compelled to write about.

One is run by MLB.TV, whose out-of-market coverage lets me watch every Yankees game except those that are nationally televised. The other is run by Main Street Sports Group, whose FanDuel Sports Network app streams local Reds games.

The two services ought to be comparable, but there’s really no contest. The MLB app is by far the better way to watch baseball, but you can only use it under two conditions: Either your favorite team doesn’t play where you live (like the Yankees, in my case), or your local team is one of the 10 clubs that partners with the league for in-market streaming.

Otherwise, you’re stuck with whichever regional sports network operates in your area for standalone streaming, and the experience will probably be worse.

Read the full column on PCWorld →

Weekly rewind

An interesting ATSC 3.0 tuner: As spotted by Cord Cutters News, a new $70 ATSC 3.0 tuner from ADTH has popped up for sale on Amazon, but it doesn’t connect directly to your TV. Instead, it plugs into a USB-A port on Google TV or Fire TV devices, which can use ADTH’s app to play local channels from an antenna. The idea is that you don’t have to switch inputs to watch over-the-air TV.

Seeing as this product emerged with no announcement and only the barest of product descriptions, I can’t vouch for it in any way. If anyone wants to be a guinea pig before I get around to trying this myself, I’d love to hear how it goes.

CNBC+ on TVs: Back in December, CNBC launched a standalone streaming service for $15 per month, but didn’t bother releasing any apps for watching the service on your TV. That’s changed now, with the CNBC+ becoming available for Roku and Apple TV devices.

The price is high for a standalone streaming, and most folks who want CNBC without cable would be better off bundling it with other services. (Most notably, DirecTV Stream’s new MyEntertainment package includes CNBC plus a slew of other news and entertainment channels, plus Disney+, Hulu, and Max for $35 let month.) But if CNBC is truly the only thing you need, at least there’s an option for that now.

More catch-up

Save more money

This section of the newsletter has affiliate links, earning me a commission if you buy or subscribe to something in some cases.

YouTube TV is running a different welcome offer than usual right now, bringing the price to $60 per month for two months, plus a 21-day trial. Lately the streamer’s been running longer-term deals with less of a monthly discount, so this a better offer if you only anticipate needing the service for a few months. (As always, this one’s for new subscribers only.)

Otherwise, not much new happening on the deal front, though I still encourage getting three free months of Peacock while you still can.

For a full list of active streaming deals and bundle offers, check my list at the Cord Cutter Weekly website.

Want more tech advice from me? Check out my Advisorator newsletter. Each week, I’ll help you take control of technology with practical advice on phones, apps, security, and more.

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Until next week,
Jared

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