Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro will join the traditional cameras in shooting tonight’s baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.
The baseball game will be broadcast on Apple TV Plus as part of the streaming service’s Friday Night Baseball lineup. The iPhone is being used to cover gameplay from positions in Boston’s Fenway Park, including the home dugout, the Green Monster (the nickname for the stadium’s famous left field wall) and one that will roam the stadium.
This is the camera setup that Apple says will be used at Fenway Park.
During the broadcast, an overlay will display when you’re seeing footage from an iPhone 17 Pro instead of a traditional broadcast camera. Apple says the smaller footprint of the iPhone 17 Pro should help provide “new angles and greater coverage” of the game.
Photos of the iPhone 17 Pro-equipped camera setup show the phone inside a case with a neutral-density filter over the phone’s three cameras. It’s connected via USB-C to what appears to be the new Blackmagic ProDock for transferring video to the broadcast feed.
There’s no mention of whether the iPhone 17 Pro itself will transmit footage over 5G networks or use the existing wired broadcast infrastructure, but venues such as these are often where wireless providers set up their fastest millimeter wave networks.
The iPhone 17 Pro will be used in the dugout, from Fenway Park’s Green Monster wall and will be rotating around the ballpark.
This isn’t the first time that a smartphone has been used to broadcast live sports. In 2019, an NBA summer league game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Wizards was broadcast from Samsung Galaxy S10 5G phones.
Apple is making a big deal about how its Pro phones are capable of professional video, and we could start seeing more smartphones shouldering this kind of work. At Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2025, CNET Senior Reporter David Lumb spotted a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra taking on similar duties.
Apple’s Friday Night Baseball broadcast requires a subscription to the Apple TV Plus service but otherwise runs similarly to watching baseball on local TV networks. The game is also available afterward as a replay or recap.
The Tigers and Red Sox game will start broadcasting on Apple TV Plus at 7:10 p.m. ET (4:10 p.m. PT) tonight and will air alongside the Tampa Bay Rays at the Toronto Blue Jays.
Watch this: First Week of iPhone 17: Inside the Apple Store Launch
