The 2020 MLS TV thread

Its a catch 22 but MLS can't maximize revenue that way the casual fan will never be happy. I get your point but then you see people complain on Twitter and such how there are never any games on when the want to watch. As far as whether Networks would pay up why not. If they want soccer there are only so many leagues they can get that have proven to draw acceptable ratings that make them a worthwhile TV venture that's Liga MX,EPL,and MLS. Liga MX is limited in scope due to language and demographics. EPL is a good get but networks are limited in scope to broadcast times. MLS has 5 interested parties. I'd sacrifice finding a game on 4 or 5 consistent networks the same way I do with NFL. We already know with ESPN outside of a oddball weekend night games ESPN will normally have the Sun Afternoon games, FS1 will have a Sat night or Sun night double header, Univision will have the early Sat game. IMO given time of adding two networks people would adapt. The key is more people outside of MLS normals would be exposed to the league. You get that with TBS AND CBS.

I also don't think its a matter of paying up. I don't seeing ESPN lowballing MLS they've been a loyal partner. They aren't going to pay Serie A most of $55m yr in 2018 and is on a shorter term deal just 3yrs when its averaged less than 100k (MLS has 3x the ratings) and turn around and say lets lowball MLS not pay up. Same for CBS. They say lets pay Champions League $100m a year when MLS says hey you said your interested lets make a deal and CBS says $50m and MLS says we have similar ratings of UCL and you paid them $100m yr for a shorter term deal. This scenario just plays out with every network. MLS has positioned itself well as there has been an established clear market going rate for soccer rights.

 

This is another possibility that soccer becomes a commodity and is traded in the same way as corn and pork bellies.

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/cvc-in-talks-over-ten-year-serie-a-media-rights-investment/

Private equity company CVC Capital Partners is lining up Serie A for its next sporting investment, it has been claimed, through a deal involving the sale of domestic broadcast rights to the top division of Italian club football.

CVC has held preliminary talks to present a proposal under which a newco would be created to manage and resell Serie A’s rights, potentially for a 10-year period, reports Il Sole 24 Ore.

The offer covers the rights from 2021-22 onwards.

CVC’s proposal, which is said to be in its ‘in its infancy’, comes after other projects studied by private equity groups in recent weeks. On Saturday, Il Sole 24 Ore reported that US-based private equity group Blackstone was prepared to offer Lega Serie A a €100m ($108.3m) loan to meet the short-term needs of clubs during Covid-19.

CVC’s reported interest comes with the private equity giant having closed in on an investment in the Six Nations rugby union tournament. CVC has been in talks with the Six Nations about acquiring a 14-per-cent stake, but it was reported last month that the deal has been delayed due to the pandemic.

In 2018, CVC acquired 27 per cent of English club league Premiership Rugby, paying £200m (€229.5m/$249m). It has also been in talks about a £120m investment in the Pro14 European and South African league.

The Infront agency holds a six-year near €6bn minimum guarantee agreement with Lega Serie A to work as its exclusive adviser on domestic and international rights media-rights sales, but that deal comes to an end in 2021.

A stumbling block in any deal with CVC could come in the form of Italy’s Melandri Law. The legislation prevents the sale of all broadcast rights to a single entity. There are those, however, who argue that the rule should only apply to a company capable of broadcasting the matches and not an intermediary.

On Friday, Serie A clubs reiterated their desire to finish the 2019-20 season at a Lega assembly meeting, but doubts remain over the fulfilment of the league’s domestic and international broadcast rights contracts.

Friday’s meeting landed on the same day that domestic rights-holders Sky Italia and DAZN, plus the league’s international rights agency IMG, were due to make their latest rights fee instalment as part of their deals running from 2018-19 to 2020-21.

The clubs discussed the issue at the assembly meeting and reiterated their position that the broadcast rights-holders should not be offered discounts.

Domestic live rights to Serie A games are currently held by Sky, the pay-television broadcaster, and DAZN, the subscription OTT service, in deals worth €973m per season.

IMG’s deal is worth just over €380m per season for international broadcast rights, club archive rights, betting rights, a marketing spend and fee for access to the broadcast signal. All three are thought to have been looking for a deferral on any rights fee payment given the current suspension of the league and no visibility on when – or if – the 2019-20 season will resume.

The reports concerning investment in Serie A come after the general assembly of France’s Professional Football League (LFP) yesterday (Monday) adopted a resolution that will enable the league to take out a €224.5m state-guaranteed loan to make up for the shortfall in broadcast rights monies caused by the termination of the 2019-20 season.

 

NWSL Portland vs. North Carolina on Saturday on CBS got 572K viewers. Largest soccer audience of the week and by far the largest ever NWSL audience.

 

In comparison, the NWSL 2019 championship game got 166k...

Just sent #NWSLChallengeCup opening game between @ThornsFC and @TheNCCourage ratings info from a source.

572K total viewers on CBS, 178K for the 18-49 age group.

(2019 Championship drew 166K via ESPN, for comparison.)

— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) June 30, 2020

This is impressive. The NWSL game on CBS got a bigger TV audience than the Chelsea-Manchester City game on NBCSN. pic.twitter.com/3lZspQeXkb

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) June 30, 2020

 

TSN announces they'll be showing all 54 matches of the "MLS Is Back" Tournament.

Major League Soccer Returns July 8 and we'll have All 54 Games of the MLS Is Back Tournament.

More details HERE: https://t.co/F0ixC3uj1k pic.twitter.com/0Jf8hQcs3q

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) June 30, 2020

 

Well the EPL has easily retaken the crown of most popular soccer league in the United States with the restart, with EPL matches being #1-10 on the list of most watched soccer matches between June 16-21. The Bundesliga early return bump is entirely erased as the highest rated Bundesliga match on FS1 only drew 65k and the lowest rated Bundesliga match on TUDN drew a shocking 7k.

In the June 22-30th time period, the NWSL restart match on CBS was the most watched drawing half of the viewership of Liverpool vs Everton from the week before. The next 13 spots are either EPL or FA Cup. The highest watched Bundesliga had MLS like numbers on FS1 - 121k. Barcelona - Atletico also only got 53k on BeIn.

Serie A on ESPN has also been a flop. Most watched Serie A match in the last 2 weeks was Lecce - Milan with 115k on ESPN. The Coppa Italia final only got 122k on ESPN.

 

I think the Bundesliga and Serie A are suffering from the lack of streaming ratings.

All BL games on 6/27 were played simultaneously, so if you wanted to watch the battle for European places you had to watch online.

Meanwhile the EPL is currently a broadcasters wet dream, with games being spread out over the week, and a captive audience stuck at home.

 

Doesn’t look like it’s on ESPN+ which is a bummer. Can’t wait for the regular season when most of the games will be with flexibility to watch on replay if I missed it live.

It does say ESPN3 but I’m guessing ESPN+ alone won’t work.

 

What is not on ESPN?

 

The game tonight. Talking about ESPN+, not ESPN.

 

You likely have ESPN3 through your ISP.

 

The Watch ESPN schedule says "AT&T 5G Aerial Cam" on ESPN3. So it must be some kind of non-standard broadcast, but at least something for people who don't have ESPN.

 

It's probably the feed from their drone camera.

 

BREAKING: CBS acquires UEFA Champions League rights for the remainder of the 2019/20 season & 2020/21 season. It means CBS will have the Champions League rights for more than 4 full seasons in the United States.

All the details in our exclusive here:https://t.co/FukftkKzsZ

— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) July 8, 2020

 

So it's quite possible that all UCL games other than the final will be on CBS AA? Just wonderful...

 

Wow, I've been looking for Serie A numbers since ESPN got the rights. Those are...not indicative of the general "huge demand for European soccer" you sometimes hear about.

 

"European soccer" actually means epl, real Madrid, Barcelona, and champions league.

 

and Bayern.

 

Even their tv ratings are MLS level. Epl stands above everyone else.

 

Even when their TV ratings are lower than NWSL’s EPL stands above everyone else.

 

464k for Inter/Orlando.

Here's an update for @thegoalkeeper: Orlando/Inter Miami did 464K last night on ESPN, most watched cable regular season MLS game in two years since Seattle/Atlanta got a huge Wimbledon lead-in.

— Matt Lichtenstadter (@MattsMusings1) July 9, 2020

 

Good, but I think we could have hoped for even better. Less than NWSL for example. Far less than the most watched EPL matches too.

 

The NWSL game aired on OTA CBS. Comparing cable numbers to OTA numbers is folly.

 

Also, it made the top 20 of all cable broadcasts last night.

(admittedly, “cable broadcast” is an oxymoron, but there you go)

 

Yeah, I said it's good...