News: MLS TV deal with Apple

I don't know, call me a money-bloated plutocrat if you like, but I'm happy to pay $100 to get all the games. Heck, go to Foxboro once, and you'll pay that amount!

Besides, if we as fans want the league to grow and prosper, we're unreasonable to ask them to provide their product to us for free.

 

Will there be advertisements?

You see, once upon a time, we got "free" television which did NOT require us to send recurring payments but did require us to sit through ads.

Now we make recurring payments AND sit through ads.

People call it "cord cutting" and seem to be super proud that they've achieved some sort of improvement.

My position is that if I have to watch ads, then I'm already paying. I shouldn't have to pay twice.

 

My experience streaming soccer is that I never see an ad unless I want to. And it's kind of the nature of soccer (unlike say American football) to be ad-free, at least during the actual game.

Other kinds of content, you have a point. I once tried to watch a movie on YouTube TV, and had to give it up, because there were ads literally every five minutes.

 

Well I won't lie. In an ads based world I used to find ways to avoid watching them. But your YouTube comment plus experience with Paramount+ and Peacock suggest that, in a cord-cut world, they can be pretty forceful on making you watch ads, particularly on replay.

If Apple continues to leave each half alone (no cuts to ads), I agree I can watch a live game without the ads by doing something else at half time. But I can't watch all the games live and they can pretty much force me to suffer the delay of ads (even if I don't watch them) when I stream a "recorded" game.

At any rate, I think the amount MLS will make has already been established. Setting the price and packaging is Apple trying to maximize profits, as they should since we live in a capitalist society. But I might walk away because the price of cord cutting is starting to be more significant than my old cable bill.

 

I tend to concur with @rkan21226, you want to charge me and have me sit thru ads also. I don't know this to be the case, but it is consistent with all the other channels and it's apple, who loves their monopolies. I guess my biggest problem with all these "specialized" channels is the sales pitch...you'll get all the games. I don't want all the games, I want to watch the Revs. I'm old and don't have much of a life, but I also don't sit in front of the TV all day.

I will decide in February if I will sign up or not. Right now I'm leaning toward not signing up. If I do sign up I'll wait a month before starting as a mini protest. It won't amount to anything, but in my mind, I'll think it mattered!

 

I am NOT happy with these prices proposed by Apple. These prices are equivalent to the monthly prices we pay for entire streaming services that have thousands upon thousands of movies and TV episodes. ESPN+ is about half the price and we get so so so much more from that.

Apple was already on my !@#$list and this just dropped them to a level I didn't think was possible.

 

I will miss ESPN+, especially La Liga, and the non-prem English coverage. But the blackout of Revs matches impacted me much more than I anticipated. $79/year and no blackouts - I’m probably going to give it a shot. I’m ever so slightly miffed that my partial season pass to the revs doesn’t give me a discount!

 

I currently use Fubo TV so I can get NESN and watch the Red Sox and Bruins - what an unbelievable start by the Bruins! I also subscribe to ESPN+ (I have already paid at the $100 per year cost) and Disney+ ($85/year). So I thought I could save some money by getting rid of Fubo and getting Hulu+; then I can get NESN 360. Ha, $30 per month for NESN. Who came up with that pricing, that's ridiculous!

 

I thought Charlie was the weak link on the CBS Sports desk. Clint was way more personable and guch was a much more compelling analyst. I'd have much rather had Mo Edu round out that group

 

I can't imagine how hard it is to build a professional sports league schedule. I used to work on software that did High School scheduling and that was tough but there are so many more variables at play.

 

I already have Apple TV in my cable package. Will I still have to pay a fee for MLS? Also I heard that Rev's season members automatically get MLS coverage. Lastly, is this across all devices? Asking for a Boomer friend.

 

Thank you!

 

Do you know if this gives you all the AppleTV stuff, or just the MLS offerings?

 

You get a $2/mo discount, NOW THAT THEY JUST RAISED the monthly fee by $2....

It's nice to get a discount but a 40% increase in the subscription!?

 

If you have Apple TV+ they JUST increased your monthly price by $2 so it seems very much like a slight of hand. That said, I think it is $79/season if you pay all up front. Using 10 months for the season that seems like the best deal at about $7.90/month. I wish I could save another $2/$20 by choosing to ONLY get REV games + the playoffs. While I’ll have total access on paper, I won’t really have the time to watch much more than the REV games.

Back to monthly fees: for grins and giggles I pulled up the menu on my YouTubeTV for some comparisons.

NBA League Pass - $14.99/month or $69/season
Sports Plus Pkg - 10.99/month $79.99/year (11 stations but really only NFL RedZone and BeIN Sports look at all interesting)

MLS has come a long way in the last several years but they seem to be setting their value a touch high here.

 

I am a STH, so how exactly does it work? Does my Ticket Rep provide me with a passcode?

 

Not sure, waiting for more info, but I assume it will be something like that.

 

Did he have a relegation clause? Or is ESPN cleaning house since they are losing MLS, USMNT and, I assume USWNT?

I only skimmed the link but will Apple be offering the content ESPN used to provide in terms of podcasts and soccer specific shows?

Finally, I was disappointed not to see Craig Burly (or however it is spelled) on that list of announcers. I was so hoping I could listen to him bash all American players on a regular basis.

And I don’t think I saw Brad?