What I think teams will do is start up their own “internet radio” show with their local announcers. It shouldn’t be hard to get sponsors to cover the minimal costs and the TV broadcast will let you choose “radio audio”. If they get the sync right then fans can choose if they want to hear homer announcers.
Also, Apple will need to staff up with a bunch of announcers--the current announcers who are losing their local gigs are obvious candidates.
YA TALK ABOUT grating announcers, Shep Messing has to be on the top ten list. Also who begins every sentence with "ya talk about" smh
And wouldn't it be great if they set up in Apple Park, meaning folks like Danielle Slaton, etc. would have an inside track... That would actually be kind of cool to have the wraparound show broadcasting from the Steve Jobs Theatre every week.
As much as I like those guys, I don't see them having the same national profile that I think Danielle will have (and already has), and I also trust Apple to ensure diversity in their lineup. Perhaps they could at least have the radio feed. I certainly would prefer to listen to them over whoever else they may get. I fully expect Apple to grab 1 or 2 big names of note for their team. It's curious that Arlo White was recently not renewed for next season's prem coverage. Maybe he's already agreed to a deal with Apple. (EDIT: I just saw he left to be the lead announcer for the new LIV golf league, so scratch that.) Just please, no Rob Stone. There is a British woman on the Peacock team who is awesome. I'd also love to see ex-Quake Alejandro Moreno involved somehow. I like his work on ESPN. Actually, they could put together quite the team of people with Bay Area affiliations: Brandi, Danielle, Danger, Chris Sullivan, Jimmy Conrad, Julie Foudy, etc.
Ya know, Arlo White lost his job about a week ago. I would think MLS would welcome him back for the Apple TV deal, if he is willing to come back to the USA.
As I posted above, I originally thought he would be good as well, but he was replaced because he just signed a big contract to be the main guy for the new LIV golf league. I'm not sure if he is able to do both. Apparently NBC/Universal didn't think so, but that may have just been political due to their own PGA contracts.
For those of you on a T-Mobile phone plan, the T-Mobile Tuesday free offer this week is a year of Apple + TV. Redeem the offer even if you are currently paying for it and they will pause your payments for a year. As previously pointed out, you don't need to be paying for Apple TV to watch the separate MLS package they will develop, but there will be select games that will be free without the package and if you ever wanted to test drive the Apple programing, here is your chance. Also, if anyone that reads this is interested in switching to T-Mobile send me a DM. They emailed me an offer code to pass out that will take 20% off the Magenta MAX plan for the life of the plan. I would get a referral reward for you signing up and I will invest that reward in Quake's tickets.
I am quite enthusiastic about this move by Apple. Doesn't hurt that I am already an Apple customer anyway. But as a STH, I get access in any event. Streaming is the future for distributing digital entertainment. It has the technical ability to grow supply (bandwidth) as demand increases (higher quality video). High def TV only became possible with the transition from analog capture and transmission to digital capture and digital displays. Cable and satellite will drop to secondary status within 10 years. So, Apple was astute to get in early and ride the wave as the transition to more and more streaming occurs. The part that excites me the most is the rumor about the payments involved. I cannot find a credible reference, so this is pure wishful thinking on my part. But I saw somewhere that Apple has offered $250M/year for the rights. And that cable and satellite providers and not excluded. So the league could be receiving even more than $250M/year. I also understand that the current TV contract provides the league about $90M/year. $250M+/year is a huge increase! At 30 teams, that is over $8M per team. I fully expect that that will easily double (if not more) the current salary cap. And with the cap doubled, the quality of the players that teams will be able to sign will also jump substantially. I think this is likely a game changer for the league!
OMG i didn’t know. I know we all have to eat, but so sad to hear Arlo is going to work for the sportswashing dark side.
Passerelli seems like a decent enough family man, but I'll be so happy to never hear a shot called a drive again.
I am trying to watch multicast MLS games on ESPN+ tonight, and for the first time, ESPN+ keeps losing all the feeds so that they are all blank. Then I have to remove the games and add them back in. Seems like ESPN is taking out their anger on MLS already…
Sounds like this will signify the end of homebased , biased commentators! Where will Chris Dangerfield work? Of that group, Sully is the best of that bunch! Unless he went back to cleaning pools, I wouldn't mind Ray Hudson again...
Each full season STH account in 2023 will get a subscription to the MLS streaming service on Apple TV
Apple appears to be in the pole position for the NFL, Champions League could be next. (disclaimer: this is from an Apple-centric new site) https://9to5mac.com/2022/07/13/apple-most-likely-winner-nfl-deal-uefa-next/
Truth is, the only thing I watched on Apple TV was Ted Lasso. I cancelled after TL season 2 finished and am waiting for TL season 3 to be at least halfway thru before I resubscribe.