Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Enjoy many benefits of MLB.TV at lower price

Yearly subscription now $49.99 for Premium, or $39.99, as players change teams, races heat up

David Price and Troy Tulowitzki (Blue Jays), Mike Leake (Giants), Jonathan Papelbon (Nationals), Carlos Gomez and Scott Kazmir (Astros), Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist (Royals), Jose Reyes (Rockies), Brandon Moss (Cardinals), Alex Wood (Dodgers), Shane Victorino (Angels), Tyler Clippard (Mets), Joakim Soria (Pirates) and Aramis Ramirez (Pirates), and Cole Hamels (Rangers).

Those are some of your newest reasons to sign up now for MLB.TV, and here's another one: Major League Baseball Advanced Media just lowered the yearly subscription price to $49.99 for MLB.TV Premium and $39.99 for MLB.TV.

As the Trade Deadline expires today and the calendar flips to August, the big immediate payoff with MLB.TV is the ease of use in seeing all the new faces in their new places.

"This is my third season with MLB.TV, and I highly recommend it to any baseball fan," said lifelong Royals fan Wayne Gilmore of Parsons, Kan. "It's great when you are traveling to watch your local team, but it is so nice to watch games across the country. Also, the archive portion is sweet to catch the game you happened to miss."

Gilmore's experience this week is a solid demonstration on why to have MLB.TV, as many summer vacationers can attest these days. The optometrist, who attended Games 2 and 7 of the last World Series in Kansas City, is vacationing with his family in Destin, Fla. He tweeted a photo showing his iPad fired up with the Royals via MLB.TV, with the Gulf of Mexico adding even more royal blue in the background. Yes, this is the life.

"I watch games when I am not home generally on my iPad," Gilmore explained. "When packing for Destin, I made sure to include my JBL Charge 2 Bluetooth speaker to provide great sound as well. I did pull out the iPhone at dinner to catch the great ending to [Tuesday] night's win. When at home, I will often watch other games, and the ability to use the Apple TV is nice. It is so nice being able to watch my Kansas City Royals while on vacation in Florida thanks to MLB.TV."

Here are other key reasons to join the millions who have made MLB.TV the most prolific sports streaming service and the original over-the-top (OTT) product:

The new Web-based media player (version 5.0) was introduced earlier this season. You'll notice the difference right away as the HD media player has an in-page layout with simplified user controls, so it all happens in your browser with no need for an additional download.

Each FOX broadcast of the 2015 World Series will be streamed live via MLB.TV, as was the case with the 86th All-Star Game presented by T-Mobile on July 14 in Cincinnati.

Scoreboard-watching. A subscription to MLB.com At Bat Premium is included for free with MLB.TV Premium, a $19.99 value. So you can enjoy complete mobile portability to compatible smartphones and tablets, and that includes more than 400 supported devices. You also can enjoy the functionality of a new game scoreboard -- perfect for tracking rival clubs -- and multi-view design to watch multiple games and highlights at once.

A clickable linescore lets you jump between innings or to single-game highlights.

Mets outfielder and MLB.TV subscriber Curtis Granderson added another signup reason: Players watch it.

"MLB.TV provides my parents in Chicago and friends across the country the opportunity to watch us play every time we take the field," he said.

In addition to the lower pricing for August, you can get 35 percent off of MLB.TV Premium if you're a college student using ID.me at checkout. You can save up to 30 percent on MLB.TV Premium by inviting your friends when you sign up.

Mark Newman is enterprise editor of MLB.com. Read and join other baseball fans on his MLB.com community blog.