Apple TV buys all MLS broadcast rights for 10 years

There would be virtually no audience for MLS on Apple TV if season ticketholders didn’t receive free subscriptions.

With 29 teams and 15-20k season ticket holders on average, that’s 400k free viewers of the 1 million reported. And, as I understand it, season ticketholders each get multiple subscriptions they can share with non-season ticket holders (e.g., @Beerking piggybacking on @Kaitlyn). So I’m guessing the actual paid subscriptions for a full season are under half a million — roughly one of every 700 people in this country.

 

There’s a number of subscriptions that have to be hit before revenue sharing to MLS kicks in, and it’s not there yet, and not sure how close it is. I don’t think the numbers are public. In order for MLS to appear on other networks, as falvo suggested, I assume those networks would have to pay Apple for those rights, which seems unlikely. In the end, it was a big gamble on the steaming model and Graber admits that they don’t know yet if it was the right gamble.

And then there’s the whole Messi question. Will subscriptions tank when The Great Man™ leaves or retires?

https://worldsoccertalk.com/amp/tv/mls-future-apple-tv-don-garber/

 

I think the league got what they wanted out of the Apple TV deal - cashflow aside, the league at least has a clean distribution story for domestic and international streaming which is an absolute must have at baseline. With Apple TV as a platform seemingly stagnating recently you could argue they would have been better off with say, Amazon or Disney/ESPN/ABC or NBC/Universal/Comcast/Peacock, but I haven't read anywhere that they were interested in the league. With any of the potential partners there would be big risks around platform market share, impending corporate breakups/divestments, etc...there are real questions around whether MLS can significantly grow its viewership but I find it hard to believe that ditching RSN distribution was a bad idea. If they want to expand the OTA match inventory (if there is demand from say, Disney or Comcast - a big if) they can always carve that out separately but getting more games on FS2 or USA or whatever isn't a needle-mover.

 

That's assuming every season ticket holder watches games on AppleTV... I bet it's more like half, probably even under that. A good number probably don't even know about it or haven't set it up, I have met some totally clueless season ticket holders... also if a STH family of four with two kids watches online they would likely be using one account to do so.

And I'd bet the number sharing accounts is a tiny fraction, two of a dozen people who are obsessive enough to post on an internet board are not representative of the average soccer viewer.

 

Someone should do a interviewer-on-the-street in Los Angeles this week, inquiring if people know who the current MLS champ is. Prediction: large majority of those questioned will have no clue.

Then ask them who won the most recent World Series. Nearly everyone will get it right.

 

MLB is a lot more popular than MLS wow bold statement when the average DP makes as much money as an obscure middle relief pitcher, and some baseball player just got a 15-year $765 million contract that is the largest deal in professional sports history.

But at least some Angelinos probably see the LA Times

 

WWE annually awards custom Championship belts to American Sport champions and mention it on Social Media, Monday Night Raw and Friday Smackdown. Usually a week later.

The Galaxy will be getting one. The Crew got one last year.

 

just cancelled my MLS season pass subscription. when i stopped being a STH I swore I would never purchase anything quakes related until Fisher sells (or somehow proves to me he is giving full support to the club).

So I've not purchased any quakes tickets or merchandise since 2017. Between now and February if Fisher sells or shows true support for the club I might renew. If not I'll be listening to Ted and Joe on the radio.

in the grand scheme of things doesn't really mean a thing but I won't give that guy a dime of my money.

sorry for the rant...

 

Good for you! But sadly, it sure looks like Fisher will never sell.

But so you don’t think the Arena thing shows Fisher is supporting the Quakes better? Just curious what your opinion is…

 

I think Arena will be another bust.....he will quit or get fired and then complain that ownership didn't deliver what they had promised. Similar to what happen with Matias. (just my opinion).

 

that certainly seems like the most likely scenario.
At least, Bruce already published his memoir, so his experience here will not be memorialized.

 

Oh c'mon - you're only basing this on 16 years of experience!

 

The Athletic's Paul Tenorio posted data on the big drop in viewership of the MLS Cup Final:

• 2024 MLS Cup Final = 468,000 viewers on Fox + Fox Deportes
  • held the same time as the SEC championship game, which had 20M viewers on ABC+ESPN
• 2023 MLS Cup Final = 890,000 viewers on Fox + Fox Deportes = 47% drop
  • held the same time as the Army-Navy game, which had 7.2M viewers
• 2022 MLS Cup Final = 2.16 M viewers on Fox + Univision (the most viewers since 1997)
  
• The NWSL Final on Nov-23 had 967,900 viewers on CBS
• The USL championship game also on Nov-23 had 431,000 viewers on CBS

 

I'm obviously just a single data point, but the Apple TV deal has greatly decreased my interest in MLS.

IMHO, the biggest flaw with the whole thing is that it doesn't offer a single-team option. I'm a Sounders fan....the only games I want to watch are Sounders games. I'm not going to pay extra for games I have zero interest in watching. If Apple TV offered a $39/season single-team option, I'd buy it. But I'm not paying $99 for the right to watch a bunch of games I have zero interest in.

The second problem is that its not part of regular Apple TV subscriptions. Can you imagine if the EPL was not a part of regular Peacock subscriptions? Or if the Champions League was not a part of regular Paramount+ subscriptions?

And because I prefer afternoon kickoffs to evening ones (because I usually take public transit to/from matches), Apple forcing MLS to move most matches to 7:30pm means that this season I attended far fewer matches than I used to.

 

Well, I'm gonna balance out your "decrease" with my "increase". So we're back to level with our microscopic sample sizes . For one, my subscription is free because I'm a STH. For 2, I like being able to watch all the games in one place + see add-on content. The start times being mostly synchronized is not great but it doesn't matter much. If I want to watch another game at another time I can do that. I just have to try to avoid seeing the score. And the video quality is excellent.

Only drag for me is that the streaming does not generally handle fast forward and rewind very smoothly. Not sure if there's something about my wireless or how it operates on MacBook or their streaming implementation or what, but I get lots of long hangs after trying to fast forward or rewind. This is not that unusual for streaming services in general - most struggle to some degree. But it's worse on Apple MLS for some reason.

 

I don't get all the fuss about this honestly. It's ONE channel and it's been mentioned how MLS went up against some college football championship or whatever.

We don't have the apple tv #s.

Then again I don't think the apple numbers are probably that amazing either or we'd have garber and his cronies shoving viewership numbers down our throats and they're not.

They need to do better in the season schedule and much better in the playoffs. Wasn't there like a 2-3 week lag between certain games? That's just horrible. Way to cut the enthusiasm of the "amazing playoff system" that MLS has going.

 

If you exclusively watch your favorite team's games, that means each game costs you $2.94. If $2.94 is more expensive than your interest in seeing your team, that's a valid choice, but it is a choice.

 

True. But that's assuming that you watch EVERY single match your team plays.

I've got a life, so I don't....when the matches were on over-the-air TV, I'd probably watch 15-20 matches a season....attend 3-5 matches, and miss the rest because I was busy doing other things.

 

That's your right to be only interested in watching 1/3 to 1/2 of the season, but let's not pretend this is an onerous cost burden. Also most teams had zero matches on over-the-air TV.

 

The thing is....casual fans like me ARE the people that MLS should be trying to add to their existing fan base. I'm a huge soccer fan....but I also support numerous other clubs in other countries besides my local MLS team (the Sounders). And I'm also a baseball fan, a basketball fan, a football fan, and a hockey fan.

Making your product harder and more expensive for people like me to watch is NOT a winning long-term strategy....we'll just spend our time and money elsewhere....

 

I hear ya. The States are a different beast than any other country and that's where it becomes tricky. How do you market your product (MLS) while competing with major entities like NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL etc.
No other country in the world has those challenges. It's easy to crap on MLS because it definitely has its short comings but at the same time it's trying to compete with leagues that have gone through growing pains while most want MLS to all of a sudden be at the same level. Not easy.

 

MLS chose a $2.5 billion deal instead of sticking with the dying regional sports network model that produced less revenue and wasn't succeeding in growing the TV audience. You choose to prefer those other interests over paying $2.94/game to watch the Sounders. Everybody makes choices, it's fine.

 

It's not just him. I hear it every day at work people complaining about how hard it is to watch the NFL let alone MLS due to needing 3 different streaming services to watch football.