The 2022 MLS TV thread

Supposedly, they're still looking at over the air rights for national games, so it's possible that they hit that $300 million number yet. I believe that this contract hits the point as well where profit sharing with the players kicks in as well.

 

Doesn't sound like it. Seems Apple is exclusive streaming partner but linear TV will broadcast national games.

 

Yes, but as the games are not exclusive (i.e. the games will simulcast on Apple) the rights they get for cable TV/OTA games will be limited. I doubt they'll get close to $50mil/year for those rights. Of course, I hope I'm wrong.

 

I like this, as I've been a cord cutter for years and years, and have followed MLS through just about every previous subscription product they've offered. The current streaming option through ESPN+ is generally good in what they offer but it's always been frustrating that FS1 games are never available even as a replay.

I don't think there's any cause for concern, voiced in some other comments, regarding the quality of the telecasts . . . I imagine they will in many cases be a step up from the current local / regional outlets. Apple is one of the world's most capitalized companies and is making a huge push into content acquisition, so I don't think anything about this will be a step backwards for the MLS viewing experience.

 

Their baseball broadcasts are interesting graphically, and an upgrade over typical TV broadcasts, but their announcer booths are the worst I've ever heard for a major sport. That's my biggest concern with this deal, by far.

 

You're all missing the biggest challenge.

Certain announcers who've been calling their local teams for 2+ decades are now going to have to act "neutral".

Over to you Mess Shepping.

 

This article says “MLS will produce all of its matches, something Garber said will require a “significant” investment, but will ensure consistency across the league and allow for more technological innovation.”

https://sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/06/14/Media/MLS-TV-rights.aspx

Hopefully the teams provide the announcers for the games, and it’s more like the situation with MLB, where you could pick which teams announcers audio to listen to. That should not add much production cost - a second audio stream and some salary/travel costs.

I guess I’m also expecting local OTA broadcasts, maybe on a sub channel or local independent station. That would fill a gap, and who knows what is happening with RSNs anyway. It may even foreshadow MLB, NBA, and NHL rights in the future as cable cos tighten the screws on RSNs.

 

Apparently local radio calls will be available with the Apple TV streams.
That makes me think the tv announcers will not be local people.

Well here's some news:

For teams with local radio broadcasts, you'll be able to listen to the radio broadcasts as the audio instead of the TV broadcast feed.

— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) June 14, 2022

 

So wait...the sky wasn't falling? Apple didn't back out and the league is getting more than $100 million a year? How is the twitterverse taking this news, I'm sure they're spinning it poorly somehow.

 

Not sure if I like this or not. Personally I watch MLS to follow teams with young US prospects to see their development and impact. ESPN+ at $5/month is perfect for this. I have local cable so the only games I miss out on are on ESPN and FS1.

I want to keep ESPN+ to watch our guys in other leagues when I can, but now I have to add another service. Maybe I get rid of local cable and it’s a wash.

Looking at this from a MLS growth perspective it’s hard to tell if this was a good deal. The $250M you mentioned is short of what they were hoping for, but maybe most of the gap can be made up with additional revenue they get from cable? It’s kind of crazy that 1yr of total MLS revenue from watching games is about the same or less than the fee for a new team to join MLS.

Also really need to consider your 3rd “not so good” which means long-term the league might not have as much interest as it would with Netflix or Amazon. It’s like Zach Steffen joining MC (Apple) who pays more, but longer term performance and development would be better if he signed a deal with a mid-level team in one of the top 4 leagues (Netflix/Amazon).

 

World soccer talk heads exploding

 

I guess I’m curious because I haven’t listened to MLS games on the radio… are the radio broadcast different from the TV audio? Most soccer (EPL, some international games) that I listen to on Sirius while driving simulcast the TV audio. I can’t recall ever hearing a proper play-by-play radio call of a soccer game. I can’t imagine why Sirius wouldn’t pick up a proper, made for radio broadcast, if one was available.

 

Most comments I've seen is noting that it is "only" $250m a year and noting that NHL makes $650m a year on their broadcast deals, so there is "only" a Big 4 in the US. Which is interesting, because if $250m a year knocks MLS out of the running, shouldn't NHL also be knocked out and making it a big 4? NFL's, MLB's, and NBA's broadcast deals are all well over a billion a year, aren't they?

 

Hardly any EPL games on Sirius are TV audio. You’ve heard plenty of proper radio calls.

Thx,

Jay!

 

Curious if AppleTV would turn away a local TV station from sublicensing games to show in a local market? Or would even be allowed.

 

A solid, it depends? I know that on the rare occasions I have listened to the Sounders radio broadcast I have found it darn near impossible to follow and that was when the Sounders had a dedicated radio team. That was only for a short period of time tho. Most seasons (including the current one) it has been a simulcast of the TV audio.

 

Interesting question on Twitter. With this deal all games are expected to be Wednesday/Saturday night unless there's a stadium scheduling issue or a linear TV request to place them at another time or day.

So does that me MLS is walking away from 4th of July, which will be a Tuesday next year? Or will that be an exception to the Wed/Sat rule?

 

That $650 million ignores the major Canadian TV deal the NHL has with Rogers, plus the RSNs that actually pay money for local NHL rights which isn't a thing outside of a few MLS markets. There is still a very large gap in terms of money per team per year between the NHL and MLS.

 

I'll bet that is an exception. I think the point is to have multiple games at roughly the same time. So we might see all the games on the 4th rather than have them spread out across July 3 and 4 as we have seen in the past when it was mid-week.

We'll have to wait and see on that.

 

The new NFL deals (no including Sunday Ticket) got the league an estimated $113 billion over 11 years, or $10.25 billion per year.

I haven't seen the current MLB numbers, but the last normal year before this one was 2019, and the league pulled in $1.3 billion on national TV deals, but local TV deals are also huge with the worst teams pulling in $127million that year all the way up to the Dodgers getting $222 million from their local deal.

The NBA's current deals pay $2.7 billion per year. They're up for negotiation after the 24-25 season.

 

Just to understand, someone who has "regular" Apple TV+ would not get these MLS games on that service and would have to subscribe to an additional subscription for MLS games specifically that would be an extra cost?

Would that MLS subscription be a just for that league or would it include any other sports properties? The ESPN+ situation is nice in that subscribing to that service got MLS games in addition to a whole bunch of other sporting events.

My gut reaction is that it is unfortunate that this didn't go to a streaming service that had other soccer. Specifically, a lot of MLS fans also follow the USMNT - and the games for them will be carried on on Paramount+ (Nation League finals; many away WCQ) and HBO Max (USSF controlled games like friendlies, WCQ, group Nation League games). [Plus there will be Gold Cup and World Cup games on Fox channels] Would have been nice if they had a similar streaming deal for MLS but with a service that already carried USMNT games.

 

Agreed.

As it is, I pay roughly $8 for ESPN+ (for various MLS games), $14 for Amazon Prime (for Sounders games) and $50 for Sling (ESPN, ESPN2, FS1).

This deal will allow me to eliminate at least $22 a month (and I'll be reconsidering Sling now as well). Assuming the MLS AppleTV+ doesn't cost $22 a month, I'll be saving money.

 

Some MLS games will be on regular Apple TV+. The equivalent of national games.

The deal for the all the league games will be on the extra MLS package. Plus some MLS Next and Next Pro games.
They have not said if there will be other sports on that MLS package. Probably not.

I am a season ticket holder for the Dynamo so the extra package is free for me. I'll keep ESPN+ for the other sports.

 

So for me, it all comes down to the cost of the total subscription. I'm not seeing much need to keep ESPN+ anymore, so I could consider an Apple+ subscription considering all of the league content is in one place now. If it was just a selection of games, I wouldn't be considering it, but the full league plus the added whip around shows are worth a decent bit to me.

Hopefully the platform (live functionality, replays, non-apple device capabilities etc) is top-notch.