I've noticed this with NBC over the life of their EPL rights contract(s). In recent years, they've gradually and perhaps subtley reduced their coverage and especially their home-grown production. I perceive evidence of cost cutting (I have no factual evidence other than what my eyes see). And I'm not talking only about how they shutdown NBCSN and are shifting more and more to Peacock. Anyway, the point is that there's a little precedence perhaps of a company buying a big expensive rights deal, having grand plans, that get re-evaluated or re-scaled over time.
you asked a question, complained that responses weren’t on point or too vague, then now claim we are thinking too “black and white”. As pointed out elsewhere, they basically sold thru the World Cup 2026 uplift and don’t have anything incremental or different to sell on the backside of 2026 unless the Apple deal has some carve out in it that seem remote to have been included. Only revenue escalators they have is selling subscriptions behind some threshold level.
The same reason cited as to why Apple can do this deal now (full of cash, small payments relative to size of annual revenue, a “rounding error” to then) is the same reason why they could stop caring. I don’t think they will and they aren’t likely to ever default on the contract (if they have to then the economy is so bad that MLS won’t matter) but some companies just ride out deals that don’t have a whole lot of upside after they give it a few years. you see that now with Fox doing remote broadcasts for all sorts of leagues and teams that they are coming up on final years of the contract. Everybody is cost conscious
Just about everyone not Netflix is taking on large losses in their streaming divisions and investors are calling for cost cuts. Ironically, Fox is in decent shape because they have little investment in streaming and streaming programming outside of Tubi.
Very relevant article here: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/07/future-of-tv-predictions.html What will TV look like in three years? These industry insiders share their predictions
The quote you posted in here is key. Judging by the posts in this thread it's safe to say that the posters here haven't used the Apple TV app before. When you use the app, it learns your habits and then tells you when that content will be on again. For example, you watch soccer and MLS.....that will be front and center in the Apple TV app for you. You set your favorite teams, and if you have notifications on, you'll be notified on your apple devices when a game ifor your team(s) is about to start. It works the same way if you use the Apple TV app on roku too (probably not the notifications if you don't have any apple devices, but it will put your favorite and most watched content front and center). Apple wants to be in the Live Sports content business. They will put a lot into this MLS Season Pass. MLS has a lot riding on it too. Both will put their best into this service to make it good. Whether that's enough to convince people to sign up? That remains to be seen. They do have linear TV rights to sell after the World Cup bumpo though. MLS is banking on one of three things happening in the Summer of 2026: 1.) interest in the sport and in term MLS gets a significant bump which will drive Subs for MLS Season Pass which will lead to more money from the Apple TV deal. 2.) That increase in interest leads to better ratings for MLS on Fo, which make the next round of linear TV rights package more valuable. 3.) Both 1 and 2 happen.
We've had 7 World Cups since this league started, zero of them have provided the league anything more than a limited and super short term bump in interest, if anything. Sure, the next one is here and could be different, but I'm not banking on any World Cup bump having any material impact on our value to broadcasters.
Digital audience for Spurs v City was 388,000, bringing the total to 1.5 million — the second most-watched PL match in US ever, behind Arsenal v Manchester United two weeks ago (1.9m). https://t.co/4rYGUAw2my— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 8, 2023
The interest-generating mechanism with World Cups was that it was an event that got American attention on the existence of the sport of soccer. We have progressed way, way beyond that. Which is good news. MLS' competition isn't baseball or basketball, with whom its success can comfortably coexist. MLS' competition is the Premier League, and vice versa as it pertains to the US market.
That's all he's ever done you see he keeps trying to spin and weave the production cost bit in there. Its like dude give it a rest take the L on the deal amount move on.
Yup they were actually rooting for the deal to be lower they even admitted it on a Allocation Disorder pod a year ago. I posted it at the time here and quite a few posters found their stance odd. Some might have forgot. I found it weird. Basically Paul's thought process was he was worried about the Apple Deal and money because he felt it would compel owners to say see we're doing OK and there would be no urgency to get more ambitious and spend more. He felt a TV deal at the time rumored amount of $150m would force them into action. But thanks for posting that I was just about to say the same. Don't let the facts get in the way of a Westside rant. He could care LESS about actualities just cherry picking what suits him best. It's already said that the 5 or so handful of teams complained about the deal because they actually made rights fees on their deals. It's also been mentioned that those teams are likely now chipping I'm on Production cost. It was reported on avg teams were spending $1.5-2m on production. If that was truthful its obviously one of the teams earning s rights fee so if you had a team gettimg $5-6m in a local deal and $2.5-3m from the National deal. Losing the local deal money and now suddenly chipping in $1.5-2m for "conference call" fees on league wide production cost likely at the end of the day mean they're making slightly less. But that's not the case for the other 20+ teams.
I personally don't watch EPL but it is growing and growing in popularity here in the US. It will pass Liga MX soon as the most popular league in the US.
[ Why is this true? (honest question) Is people's fandom really this exclusive to one sport? (I know mine isn't, but that's just me.) I would think that the different time frame would mean mls could coexist with the premier league, too.
I was just looking at this, I know the MLS is more in our time zone compared to the European leagues but wow. The last rights deal we saw games being shown on both ESPN & BeIN Sports with them rotating MLS Cup and All Stars games. BeIN Sports showed around 6 games from the International feeds while ESPN showed direct ESPN & ABC feeds as they have since the late 90s early 2000s. I don't know how people are going to find where the MLS has gone and when they do they probably like me can not justify the price. I'll certainly miss flicking onto random games on a Sunday morning on regular cable channels
Has apple or MLS hinted at what sort of subscription numbers they're hoping for, either in the short or longer term? What would success be for this platform?
NBC has done a very good job of packaging them. Pregame, between games, postgame shows that create narratives around the game. Just like what the networks do for the NFL. Sports are entertainment.
The soccer share of the US sports market is only going to get so big, and its only going to maximize itself if MLS can enter the zone of local market legitimacy and caring that the Big Four currently occupy. EPL (which is currently relegating the rest of the world to second-tier status and is on the weekend unlike the Champions League) offers a different model of engaging the soccer consumer, and if that's what American soccer fans are acculturated to, that will eat into MLS' mindshare as it grows. For either to durably succeed and grow, the other one will have to be constrained. Soccer is different and will accommodate a more cosmopolitan, omnivorous perspective, but only to a point. It just popped into my head that the best comparison for this is probably the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW back in the 90's. A few obvious differences of course, but it's a similar mechanism whereby the competition and casual attention can only raise all boats up to a certain level.
Maybe hot take but not actually its a bit of yes and no. Ratings are up from the last NBC deal where NBC execs like Rick Cordella were quoted as lamenting the fact in 2018 that EPL numbers weren't what they once were. At one point the EPL season viewership dipped to 380k in 2017. Numbers have been better especially looking back to 2015 the best ever EPL viewership year with NBC at 514k. What appears to be happening is numbers are back to the 2015 levels. I'll note that this EPL season does have a chance to be the best rated season ever. But they'll have to finish really strong thru May. It appears the catalyst for growth hasn't been NBC but USA Network has much better distribution. That distribution has translated to better viewership vs NBCSN. As far as Liga MX it averages about 650k. In order for EPL to leap them EPL will need to start having those lower tier games that get 200-250k start doing close to 400k in the mornings throughout the season(including once football season starts with CFB/NFL). IMO Liga MX has too many advantages.