I totally agree with you that $100/yr is a really good deal for all the content and games offered. What I think is interesting about your post is that you said you discovered MLS via an ESPN game. While the Apple deal is great value for current fans, how will the next one of you find the game now and become a committed fan? Hopefully the Fox/FS1/Apple TV games, and to some extent the Apple TV+ games for those that have Apple TV+ but are not MLS Season Pass subscribers, will make enough impressions to get some new fans to jump onboard.
Theoretically, it will be discovered because MLS is literally 1 of only 2 options on a very high traffic website. If that will ACTUALLY convert anyone is the question.
USA vs Colombia 540k on Telemundo and 416k on TNT. Rock solid ratings what what turned out to be a horrible game.
So spent the afternoon watching pretty much everything that is currently on the site. The drone stuff was very interesting. I have been to 90% of all MLS stadiums in person, but it was still an interesting perspective. The best section to me is the Rituals section. Many of the traditions I knew of, but learned quite a few new things. The Montreal piece was in French with English subtitles. Was totally unaware of the "Paddles" Colorado gives out to MOTM. Good stuff. Rewatched the PHIl-LAFC final again, what a crazy game. I truly believe as a core MLS fan, this product will be great. NO more games starting late because frekin basketball, softball, tractor pulls and armwrestling runs over ! I would assume on the games I don't watch in full, I will get quality highlights, not the crap Fox fed us. The only teams I will have to track down are the USMNT & USWNT, but knowing World Cups should be over the air, I feel good. I really don't follow Europe anymore, other than whatever team a US Player is on and highlights on internet are good enough. I am in domestic soccer heaven. (Wonder if they will show any USOC highlights when a MLS team is involved?)
That part about the internet was a much different place back then. I use to watch ESPN religiously and I don't anymore. But games will still happen on Fox and I'm sure before long people will start looking at Apple streaming free games as a channel on ________device. Needless to say in 2006 social media was in its infancy and soccer in general wasn't on TV. That was the part that threw me off that it was a live game and a MLS game. In 2023 MLS and soccer are way more mainstream. Also the kids don't look at streaming as futuristic but more like the phone on the wall back then.
Oars. (Yeah, they look like paddles but we've called everything we do with that motif oars. Partially because C38's charity arm is the "Oar Foundation" which sounds a lot better for a charity arm than "Paddle Foundation". ) Also you might have caught Marcelo Balboa saying he's got an oar, even though the tradition started way after he retired. We did two special oars at the end of last season to thank 'Celo and Richard Fleming for their work in the booth for 10 years.
I guess what I’d like to see is a league news program that covers what’s going on in preseason. Maybe some highlights of the preseason games, information about what’s going on in the camps… who’s there, etc. There’s more to getting up to speed on the league than drone tours and fan rituals.
Honestly at this point it doesn't even need to be nightly, it can be 2-3 nights a week. It'd be great if they had an AFl 360/NRL 360 type show once or twice a week where a round table of reporters, and analysts discuss and debate the main goings on within the league.
My other fear is that they over consolidated game time slots. Too many games at 7:30 eastern Saturday. I’d like to see 6 or 8 different time slots each week. That way, you can watch more games live each week.
That's most likely because half of the league is in the eastern time zone....... Set kickoff times hasn't hurt the Champions league or other sports leagues....like the NFL, where the majority of games are at 1PM eastern on Sunday afternoons.....
It’s not the set kickoff times. Set kickoff times are good. Heck, they probably should have 3 time slots, 4 PM, 7:30 and 10 PM eastern on Saturday adjust for local time zone). That would allow a 1/2 hour between games for a highlight show like NFL and EPL have. Right now, there are a number of overlapping games… the first Saturday has 7:30, 8:30, 9:30 and 10:30 kickoffs. The NFL before MNF had all games kick off at 1PM local, except maybe Miami that had lots of 4PM games early in the season (early afternoon in south Florida was the hottest part of the day). They have added Monday, Sunday and Thursday night games to get more viewers. My recollection was in England, all soccer games kicked off at the same time. They’ve added more times to allow more games to be broadcast on TV. What I’d like to see is more Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday night double headers. That means more times you can watch a game.
Some of this requires patience. I would be surprised if at the end of this 10 year deal we were still "7:30 local Saturdays and some Wednesdays". But the first step is getting everyone in a rhythm to go to Apple in a set timeslot. Then they can think about expansion.
Monday Review show with Highlights and analysis wednesday news show with a roundtable discussion of the hot topics of the week friday preview show of each match and stories heading into the weekend.
Watching last season’s games it is clear that picture quality of so many broadcasts is meh. Even the playoff games. if there is one thing that hopefully is a MASSIVE upgrade it should be the picture quality. Apple’s baseball games are gorgeous to look at.
I tried to sign up for Apple TV today, but it said my email address was already on file and wouldn't let me sign up. Help!
Doesn't that heavily depend on lighting at the stadiums? Not many MLS stadiums are HD TV lighting certified, at least that was the case some years back.
You likely already have an Apple ID. Have you ever used/do you use iTunes? If so, that's likely why you're getting that message. What you would need to do is sign in with your existing Apple ID account, and likely update the payment info for that Apple ID.
Every time an MLS TV deal has come up, the league talks about how much it is looking forward to the new broadcaster having set times, set channels, etc. none of which has mattered going back 20 years with MLS. Whether it was Soccer Saturday on ESPN, FS1 Sunday night, whatever, it never seems to matter in the ratings. NOW - ratings at least in the traditional sense are less important which I think is a collective benefit to this deal. I think the set start times are trying to "enhance" local ticket sales and consistent game schedules for ticket buyers, less about TV pressures. Daytime games or earlier starts tend to draw terrible in many of the locations in MLS (especially South where it gets hot earlier).
We just witnessed the WORST coverage of soccer in DECADES. First the CWC got placed ENTIRELY on FS2. Next they air a full 3 minute commerical block in the middle of the first half. Then {{SPOILER ALERT}} the first game goes into overtime,and runs into the Seattle game. Firstly, they air a ticker that the Seattle game has been moved to the Fox Sports app. Then about ONE minute later they go to commercial and switch on over to the Seattle game. What happened in overtime? Doesn't matter. That was never shown. Un-be-lievable. It was like experiencing coverage of soccer in the early 90s again.
That's because the World Feed cut out. What were they supposed to do, leave the screen blank? I would also have to believe that the set kickoff times are to accommodate the planned whiparound show.
Not saying it was fox's fault. Just saying it was shit, and somehow I don't think it would ever happen for the actual world cup.
Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Theres a thing for spoilers Thx, Jay!