Yahoo Sports and Apple TV are partnering for a series of altcasts starring the hosts of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast and The Cooligans.
The two companies announced on Wednesday that Apple TV’s MLB and MLS packages will feature a series of altcasts before those respective seasons end. Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, co-hosts of Yahoo’s Baseball Bar-B-Cast, will call the first two innings of Apple TV’s broadcasts of the Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Guardians game on Sept. 4, and the Philadelphia Phillies-New York Mets game on Sept. 18. Mintz and Shusterman will also host pregame shows for each broadcast. The first two innings of each game will stream across Yahoo Sports’ platforms before transitioning to Apple TV for the last seven innings.
Additionally, Yahoo and Apple will team up for a pair of MLS altcasts featuring the co-hosts of The Cooligans, stand-up comedians Alexis Guerreros and Christian Polanco. The duo will call two games: the Campeones Cup between reigning MLS Cup champion Inter Miami and defending Liga MX champion Cruz Azul on Sept. 16, and a game between Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati on Oct. 28. Both matches will stream in full on Yahoo Sports platforms. The altcast will feature “a range of camera angles provided by Apple TV,” including a referee cam and a feed shot entirely on iPhone.
While these altcasts are pretty limited in scope, they should offer some decent cross-promotion between both Yahoo and Apple’s sports offerings. At the very least, they’ll give fans some additional options when tuning in for a handful of the more important regular-season games Apple TV will broadcast for either league this year.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.