Oh man...guess I'll have to wait until after MLS Cup to subscribe so I can just binge watch the season over a weekend. 34 to 37 games over a 48 hr period is possible right???
So TV is worth $8.33mil/yr per team. Pretty low by US professional sports standards but probably fair given our tv ratings.
I'm definitely in the bad news camp on this one. Didn't intend on adding another subscription in a time of contemplating cutting down on some. I guess we'll see what it looks like as the new season approaches. Maybe a discounted annual option at least? Though I did enjoy those couple episodes of Severance that I saw during a trial period.
I got the Apple TV subscrption gratis as I'm a Season ticket holder. What was the annual fee for unlimited access? ? $100 or something like that.
Just logged in to my Apple TV account after a few months... It appears as if my annual MLS subscription from last season somehow morphed into an Apple TV subscription. Now showing that it's set to renew for $99 for a year. Or I could choose to go monthly at $12.99 per.
Yes, it is no longer a standalone subscription. It’s just included if you have Apple TV. Probably better value this way. There are some good shows on Apple TV as well as F1 racing soon which I don’t understand but many are crazy about. It’s kind of disappointing though if you go to the MLS page there really isn’t anything extra. I feel like they kind of promised that Apple TV would be full of MLS content that would be of interest, but it’s basically just the games. Kind of a missed opportunity I think
they got rid of of the Spanish 360 show and cut down on spanish announcers as well as other minor cuts, so thats disappointing, I've exhausted all my deals for AppleTV, so I have to pay the 100 but for all the MLS games, F1 (which I watch on occasion and this year I will, to see if the kartrashian curse gets Lewis Hamilton.) and shows like Hijack, Slough House and Pluribus, to name a few edit: since I'm a cheapskate, I decided to look for deals and I found the link below for free 30 day trial and it worked for me, hopefully it will work for everyone else as well, and it gives people a chance to test drive AppleTV before making a financial decision on getting the full year of service. Apple TV 30 Day Offer
While it isn't available on my T-Mobile plan, T-Mobile is offering Apple TV for $3.00 per month. I haven't checked it out, but if you have T-Mobile it might be worth your time to check it out in more detail.
I did look for that 3 dollar deal and it didn't come up for me, I had used my 6 month trial last season and I believe I may not have the right plan to get the 3 dollar a month deal but hopefully it will work for others. thanks for pointing out this option as well
FYI - my rewards credit card includes Apple TV for free. So if you have any rewards cards you might want to look through what it offers.
So this weekend’s match against Houston will be shot entirely on iPhone 17 Pros. This is fascinating the smaller size could be really interesting in terms of new opportunities that larger cameras don’t support. I also wonder if this is a pre-cursor to live 3D broadcasting? Apple has been doing some really innovative work in gaussian splat research particularly in efficient processing of image data. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026...-live-pro-sports-event-shot-on-iphone-17-pro/
15 phones gives you a lot of camera angles Apple's broadcast of Saturday's LA Galaxy vs. Houston Dynamo MLS match will be shot entirely on iPhone 17 Pro devices. They'll use 15 phones. https://t.co/k40zn66VTv— ✏️Jacob Feldman (@JacobFeldman4) May 21, 2026
I already hate this and am looking forward to whining about how much time they spend on stupid angles and shots that have nothing to do with the game. Shurikt's two rules for soccer broadcasts: 1. If the ball is in play, the play should be on screen. 2. Shots should always include both the player passing the ball and the player receiving the ball.
That is so stupid. Thank god I’ll be at the match. I’ll try and bump any of these hand held camera people if I get a chance.
I assume that many of these will be located at the usual TV camera locations, with others at fixed positions on the field. I don't know enough about TV production to know if this is an Apple publicity stunt for the iPhone 17 or an attempt to eliminate camera operators and other personnel.
I read someplace online that China had a policy for companies that if a worker was displaced by AI, that the company couldn't just let them go; that they needed to keep them on payroll for some indefinite period of time. I don't vouch for the truthfulness of this in China, but I seem to recall that Japan has the practice of window workers, who don't really perform day to day duties.
Are we that bad that they are now removing real cameras from the stadium? Hope this turns out better than it sounds.
I can't speak to the relative difference between a professional TV camera vs an iphone 17. I suspect that the pro camera has much more expensive lenses and smoother zooming capabilities. On the other hand, I have to believe that Apple thinks that the iphone 17s along with whatever other changes they are making, will be close enough that most people won't notice the difference especially if they aren't looking at the two images side by side. The big differentiator is the most people line. I still can't believe that my kids willing listen to their music on what I consider to be garbage sound systems and claim they don't notice the difference.
I’m not an expert either, but I know Steven Soderbergh has filmed a couple of feature films with iPhones. I know proper cameras like the Red and D5 have larger sensors and better lenses (though you can get lens mounts for the iPhone) and produce higher image quality. I think people kind of forget how poor displays and content can be. Most of the screens at my local theater are only 2K. TrickHog can correct me here, but as I understand it a lot of films with special effects are only rendered at 2K because 4K is so expensive. Most people have their TVs set to that awful soap opera effect and the brightness too high. I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think the iPhones video quality is a limiting factor.
The sensor on the iPhone is pretty good. It's the lens that's the limiting factor. It's resolving power and magnification is very limited compared to the high-end cameras used for live sporting events. I wonder if the iPhones are gonna be outfitted with external lens adapters and high quality zoom lenses to fix that. You can attach a $6,000 lens to an iPhone and technically still say it was filmed with an iPhone, I guess. I'll also say that the price of rendering is no longer an issue and all films and tv shows are now finishing in 4k and many films and shows are using highter than 4k for image capture. I've done 6k or 8k capture on my last 4 films.
Ah that’s good to know about rendering costs. Now if they could upgrade the projectors at my theater.
Can’t tell if I’m being overly critical because I know this game is being shot on a phone, but it feels like the whites of the Galaxy kits are being crushed and some medium shots look a bit washed out and/or over exposed. The chroma of the pitch is changing a bit too. I also see there’s at least one “big camera” so maybe not everything is on the phone and I’m making this all up. The Net Cam is unquestionably better. But overall I’d say if you didn’t know it was shot on a phone and you weren’t in the industry I don’t think you’d notice a difference.
I thought the vid quality was slightly worse but we got more replay angles which I really appreciated. Ideally they would add more regular cameras so we get multiple angles and great vid quality.