In the weirdest (to me) announcement of major MLS announcements yesterday Apple and MLS breathlessly announced the major ground-breaking change to move all MLS games from Season Pass to Apple TV. No separate subscription fee for MLS. You must now have, and only need, an Apple TV subscription. The whole way Apple and MLS are announcing this, if you didn't know better, you can hardly tell that MLS Season Pass is a part of Apple TV already. In practical terms, if I have this straight, this will decrease the cost to watch MLS from the current $198/y (99 for Apple TV+ and 99 for MLS Season pass) to one $99/year subscription to Apple TV. So, for some of us there is no change at all. I get MLS Season Pass for free through my season tickets. I already subscribe to Apple TV+. They repeat claims that fan response to the Apple TV/MLS deal has been strong, above expectations. Not sure who all believes that -- I don't.
This surprised me. I got a Dynamo email saying that, as a season ticket holder, I will get a free subscription to Apple TV.
More details out: The overall deal is shortened from a 10-year deal to a 6 1/2-year deal. So Apple can get out of it (or MLS seek higher fees) earlier than before. Apple is paying $50 million additional for the shortening. (MLS will realize $50m more over the 6.5 years than if the deal was left alone. Very interesting.
This is all points to MLS Season Pass sales and viewership being poor on Apple TV. They took a 10-year deal and shortened it to 6.5 years and took out a revenue stream that allegedly MLS was supposed to get additional revenue sharing from from if targets were met. They'll try and save face by saying they got more money over the 6.5 years this way but they gave up 3 years on the backend with no guarantee they get that same money in a new deal.
I picked up on this announcement from MLS HQ yesterday as well. Interesting an several fronts. Specifically what y'all have already mentioned.