The 2020 MLS TV thread

Cool. I'm interested. Any news to report? Is the current TV deal up after this season?

 

2022

 

Altitude is back on DirecTV but still has no deal with DISH and is suing Comcast over their refusal to make a deal. So a large number of Denver homes will not be able to get the Rapids as of right now.

 

I’m fed up with this fiasco. I can watch every game of every team except for any game from my home town so who should I follow this year?

 

`Prediction time

Ratings Increase say increase by more than 2%.

Rating unchanged say within a 2% range of existing

Rating fall say more than 2%

My reading of the Tea Leafs, Tarot Cards, Crystal Ball gazing... is for a 5 % + increase on last year by season end.

If I am wrong this post can be ignored if I am right I will claim god status.

 

I have been told that @onesoccer intends to bid for the Canadian @MLS rights when they come up, so i suspect there will be more not less movement to that platform in near future.

— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) January 13, 2020

MedioPro Canada was already acquired all the Canadian rights to

• All CONCACAF tournaments until 2023
• Liga MX
• Canadian Premier League
• Canadian Championship
• League 1 Ontario
• All National teams games (Men & Women)

When is the MLS TV deal up?

 

Ok, need some help from the collective BigSoccer TV brain trust. With the standoff between Altitude and Comcast looking like its not going to end before the start of the season, what's the best VPN to use to get around the ESPN+ location blackouts?

 

2022

 

I expect a double digit increase. Before the announced schedule I expect a solid increase in ratings up from last year. Simply because the added market reach and last year was affected by the US World Cup failure.

Media Insider Patrick Crakes confirmed on Twitter the cable average of MLS last year was 260k. Which means it dipped from 276k in 2018. Last year was the first overall cable decline in average for MLS since 2011.

MLS averaged 260K viewers across all platforms this year, a double digit decline vs. 2018, Not sure about your OOH lift so check that as it seems really high. Regardless, MLS viewing will only be small part of value behind next TV deal as that's driven by USSF - as in past.

— Patrick Crakes (@Aquinas82nd) December 5, 2019

I was also able to obtain the MLS Spanish Language Simulacast viewership numbers for ESPN Deportes and Fox Deportes for the 2018 and 2019 seasons from a source I have with Nielsen access.

Keep in mind these numbers are excluded from the Cable viewership average.

 

ESPND and FOXD do like their LAFC.

 

I know someone who uses tunnelbear from europe, though it's had mixed results. ESPN spends way too much effort on location check. I find this annoying. Ghost bear mode usually works, though

 

According to our sources, @MLS has signed a deal with beIN SPORTS to broadcast the league across 11 countries in the Asia Pacific. No $$ specified, but nations include Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and others. China not included. pic.twitter.com/IQf2jKVtz1

— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) January 16, 2020

 

From WSJ:

"Sports on Peacock will include Olympics coverage, which NBCUniversal has the rights to into the next decade, Premier League soccer and golf’s Ryder Cup. The NFL, which NBCUniversal has rights for, won’t be on Peacock."

I wonder if Peacock will play a role in the next contract. This service will just be evolving, in need of content, and possibly another platform for NBC to monetize their MLS rights. They reportedly made a bid for exclusive all platform rights last time, will they go for it again?

Personally, I dont see this service taking off and may be shuttered or scaled back by 2023.

 

Yeah I don't see it either. MLS is set up well with ESPN+. The pairing with Disney+ and Hulu really has allowed for explosive growth on that streaming platform. Due to the upcoming dramatic increase in the regular season inventory of games from expansion with 24 to 32 teams that's 408 games to 544 games there will be I could see NBC jumping in for a set of linear rights for a package of maybe 40 to 60 games and 1 or 2 playoff games.

NBC will more that likely end up having to split its NHL package as the NHL chases the white whale of the big TV deal and can only get close to getting the Big 3 money they seek by splitting rights. I'm also not convinced that NBC will be able to keep exclusive rights for the Premier League after the 21-22 season. NBC has said since they signed that $167m yr deal that they aren't making money off the EPL, EPL being the money loving league they are will most likely expect and want to see their US rights fee double once again. As much as NBC loves having EPL I can't seeing them paying the Premier League like they did the last deal doubling rights from $83m yr to $167m yr. They may end up choosing to split that package which would lead them to possible look at get MLS rights to add bulk back to their soccer portfolio.

 

You misspelled 2021....

 

I got a letter from Directv stating Direct Kick is back this year for $89. I never know from year to year whether it will survive.
Until ESPN+ gives us a better way to watch archived games, faster toggle, or multiple games at one time, I’ll stick with Direct kick.

 

Last year, I thought the same thing about CBS All Access.

 

I dropped DirecTV two years ago... I don't remember an option to watch archived games. I thought you needed the MLS subscription for that.

As for multiple games, you can do that in the ESPN+ app.

 

ESPN+ has a multicast option on Apple TV. I had four games up at one time. You switched between audio on-screen using the touch pad to select the audio source. You can make the current audio game full screen by clicking the touch pad. You go back to multicast by clicking the menu button.

 

I’m actually very bullish on Peacock and think it will be a success.

That aside, I wanted to discuss the possibility of an MLS Network. I know it’s probably a little premature to do this given that we are trying to fish our ratings out of the toilet but it seems like an opportunity for the league to create a spotlight and revenue stream that other leagues would struggle to match.

Do you think this is a possibility over the next 10 years?

 

No. If anything we're going to see a consolidation of all these OTT streaming options in the next 10 years, not an increase in them (well, they'll probably increase for another couple of ears, then consolidate). Netflix and Disney+/ESPN+ are still going to be the big hitters in the space but many (most?) industry types have severe doubts about any of the others to survive on the basis of their offerings alone.

Amazon Prime will likely survive, but most people are paying for it to get free shipping, not for streaming access. AppleTV may also if they continue their "one year free with any new Apple device". Beyond that though? CBA All-Access is essentially "sign up once a year to binge Star Trek and cancel". Peacock is "get Comcast subscribers to watch more commercials". Hulu is already being absorbed by Disney. HBO Max is probably the wild card.

 

So, I may have miscounted here, but excluding the 2019 playoff games, the average viewership on Spanish Language simulcasts appears to be ~ 45,379, making total viewership average of 321,379. I don’t recall what OOH viewership is but that likely puts the average audience above 350k, and maybe even close to 400k.