News: MLS TV deal with Apple

I had the same issues with the announcers. I think it was a sound balance thing and they just needed to have a little less crowd noise or something.

 

it’s showing up for me.

 

I'm sure it is there. I stumbled around the REVs page and could not find it but I have to admit I did not put a lot of energy into looking for it. I figured that if it had just happened the day before that it would be prominently displayed. Guess I was wrong.

I did get to what a lot of TT's goals.

 

6 a.m.soccer talk!

And another season of "Dumb Questions for Coach Arena with Zo and Bertrand!"

 

Luckily I watched the game, but in a noisy bar. Then I went back to watch it again the next day and all I could see was highlights. Anyone else have trouble finding the recording of the whole match?

 

I have followed the Revs since year one. I watch live or record every game possible in past years. I have a feeling that will now end. I do not go to many games live being a STH is not an option for me. I have signed up for the AppleTV free app and I already hate it. Two many passwords, plus a phone number confirmation to even get in, Bulshit! I dont care about other MLS teams and dont want to pay to see ones I won't watch. So i think I'm screwed. Thank-you very much MLS. I hope this dumb idea goes up in smoke with few signing up and attendance falling off the edge of a cliff. I will not listen to games on tv and am hoping to find some pirated sites to watch the games

 

I'm used to recording games, being able to stop/start, skip halftime/pre-game, etc., fast-forwarding to key events to re-watch, replaying the slo-motion replays in slow-slow-motion, so I probably won't be able to do most of that.

And, like you, I don't care about other teams either. If I watch, it's generally to hate-watch the teams I really despise.

The two-factor authentication is a pain - I think that's required by Apple to make it harder to share the account (if my brother is using the account, then the auth code is going to come to me every time?!).

OTOH, and this is easy for me to say as a STH, you can't really blame MLS for acting as though their primary interest is fans who are supporting MLS financially. I know, we've been used to getting TV coverage for free - and now it's not free anymore. But MLS should probably only give away their product for free when they feel like it's in the best interests of the league and they clearly feel that this plan is better for their interests now.

 

I thought listening to Sam and Krakauer was tough in the beginning, but Lloyd Sam started to grow on me. He's got kind of an infectious enthusiasm, despite being a former RB(!) and he wasn't afraid to call out players for saying when they needed to have a made a play.

I don't think either talked much about tactics, strategy, momentum, intangibles, etc. - but I'm used to not getting that. I also think they talked up Charlotte more than the Revs - maybe that was the influence of such a huge crowd. They gave the ref high marks at end of game - saying that he got it right or something like that, but I thought he could/should have done something about the persistent fouling.

At the STH Welcome Event and on several forums I've heard a bunch of pining for Davies/Feldman. Please - let's be honest here, that was a terrible pairing (probably the weakest in 25+ years of the Revs) and we should never get nostalgic for it. I get that they are pros with long-time team ties and it's a bitter pill for them, I'm sure, so on a human level it's unfortunate to get dead-ended, but realistically they were both promoted well beyond their capabilities to a very high-profile, highly visible role and never did enough to grow into it.

 

Wait till they see what they make now? Local news hardly covers them, i dont see AppleTV being a big item at $15 a month and even if some subscribe, many ... like me won't. Bottom line is... MLS just took an invisible pill and I think their bottom line will suffer. I really hope this fails and Apple just goes away. This is one of the reasons I refuse to own ANY Apple products. They want you go get an Apple tattoo on your ass for the honor of being an Apple Minion. As much as I hate to do it... mark down as a pass on this "deal"

 

Normally, I watch AppleTV on my Roku enabled TVs. I do not have to repeatedly sign in (no two factor authentication). Right at the moment, I am not at home, so I launched the AppleTV app on my iPad. First, no extra authentication. Second, I found the Rev season opener by:

1. Selecting Sports
2. Selecting MLS Season Pass
3. Selecting the Revs under “Eastern Conference Clubs”
4. Scrolling ALL THE WAY down to “Past Matches” which showed only last weeks game (so far)
5. It went to a screen that tried to show me an approximately 7 minute highlight reel. BUT, when I scrolled down there was a “How to Watch” section with a link to “2 versions.”. When I selected that I could choose between the highlights and the full version.
6. Of course, I got a “there is a problem loading the content.”. This is true for any full game that I watch and I will rant about this in a moment.
7. I can watch the highlights and I can move forward and backward with ease. I imagine the same for the full match.
8. The duration of the full match (that I can’t watch - see item 6) is around 90 minutes. I don’t think you have to worry about half time.

Item 6 rant: This is pretty typical for me when using streaming service and it is why I will most likely drop MLS Season Pass. I will work to confirm, but I believe this is a streaming service, per usual, performing VPN and Proxy detection and throwing up a vague error that denies service. They did not advertise, that I recall, that I could/should only watch in my home. They did not advertise that I could ONLY watch with my internet security (VPN) turned off. But that is how they implement it. It is not specific to Apple, it is used by many streaming services. IMHO, it is wrong and it is extremely false advertising.

 

I’ve been through the Apple Chat support service to the point that they had, shock of shocks, someone CALL me! No one can figure out why I can’t watch the 90 minute match. I can watch shows, films, MLS highlights but none of the 90 minute matches. Shows my subscription paid too.
So it is a head scratcher. But I was asked to delete my VPN as a debug measure…

 

3 devices for MLS here. 1 Roku, 1 Flex Box (Xfinity), 1 ChromeCast.

Signed into all 3, and after 1 time (each device) of Two-Factor ID, have been logged in since - no TFA needed. Kinda like Hulu, Peacock, etc... and other apps on these 'set top' boxes. Granted sometimes any of these app/device combos will barf and I have to re-log in, but this is rare, and I've come to understand and expect this.

Seeing this thread has taught me _never_ to try AppleTV on a browser (my only option on my Linux PC or Android phone). I am resolved to watch only on one of the above devices.

I actually quite enjoyed the match, the interface, and the ability to browse and watch or scan thru other MLS matches after watching the requisite Revs match in its entirety.

There are some annoying differences between AppleTV and other services (such as: I find it _really_ hard to differentiate the highlighted tile with non-highlighted sometimes), but I find little things acceptable in this age of interface design and "best fit" / "close enough" / "deal with it" ideologies, intentional or not.

As noted here and other threads, I REALLY wished they'd move the option to see the complete match (whether by click-and-hold or "2 viewing options" or whatever) to the TOP of the screen it lands on to avoid seeing the 'highlight' row. Titles such as "Goal by <xxxx>", "Y team Red Card", are hard to NOT see scrolling past.

Kevin D.

 

I haven't had to use two-factor authentication to log in. Other than the one time I set it up on my Roku.

 

So here's my basic reaction to the new Apple offering: it sucks. Want to watch the games on demand after the fact, using as your device your internet browser, as Apple promised you could? You can! But.... to do so you have to click on a thing that shows you the final score of the game you're about to watch. Want to turn that "feature" off? You can't! Why not? Who knows!

Maybe MLS knows! Let's go on their website and complain! Just click on their button that says "Customer Service," and... and... never mind.

 

My TV setup is mostly Apple. I don’t have any OTA or traditional cable channels. My main viewing device is an Apple TV box, and an old TV. My wife holds the Apple TV+ subscription. You are allowed to share the subscription with a handful of others. She shares it with me, so I can watch MLS (or any other TV+ content) on any of my devices (admittedly, also Apple), as can my daughters sprinkled around the country. Generally, no 2FA is required after the first login, as the authentication for a device (e.g., phone face recognition or a PIN) hides that from the viewer.

I can’t speak to if/how sharing subscriptions works on non-apple devices.

It sounds like some of the non Apple platforms have their act together, but some may not. Particularly browser based viewing may be at the mercy of the life of the session, or the browser/application has not rolled out any direct integration with Apple’s auth scheme. I hope that improves for those having trouble with their setups.

I have a handful of beefs with Week 1 Season Pass, but they are minor, and I can be patient, because no Rev matches will be blacked out this season. That’s what won me over.

 

I get why some people think this sucks. Fortunately for me, I'm a season ticket holder so this costs me nothing. And I pretty much stream all the content I consume at this point anyway, outside of live sports that are still on normal TV. And I don't think MLS has to worry about audience or revenue. Streaming isn't the future anymore, it is the now; plus their ratings on old school TV nationally and locally were always small. And the league is making $250 million a year on this deal - that's more than double the league's previous deal. Time will tell, but I'd be shocked if this had any kind of lasting negative impact on the league's status locally, nationally or globally.

 

You're making sense. Lots of bellyaching here about double long-ins and code verifications and how to watch whole match recordings. I was stumped -here and there too- but once I got through the stumbling blocks, no problems. I'm no longer asked for verification. I even watched the first match on my phone from a birthday party that I had to go to. It worked flawlessly -on an Android even- and never buffered once. I also learned from a fellow supporter that to see the entire match re-play, one has to scroll all the way down and find it, then hold the remote button down on it for a couple of seconds. Granted, that's not intuitive at all, but once I figured it out I was good to go. Plus, I can advance or "rewind" to any part of the match. Phew! That's a lot. But, again, I'm set now and guess what? The picture quality is incredible. It's candy for the eye. I'll probably get used to that and spoiled with it, but -for now- it's so nice to look at that I've watched some other matches too. Bottom line, it's time for people to start supporting the league with a subscription or get a season ticket and support that way, then you'll MLS Season Pass for free.

 

You speak with great clarity. The last thing you said resonates with me. "Apple seems committed to getting things right". I believe Apple will re-write the rules. Soon other sports will do business this way. They are already a little jealous after last week and some day ESPN will rue the days when they treated MLS as second class citizen.

I get that -with this- some viewers will be marginalized, but others will marginalize themselves because if they really wanted to watch the Revs bad enough, they could. They just don't want to alter their habits or re-allocate some of their budget to prioritize the Revs. Human nature, I say, especially with older people (I'm older too.)

The upside of Apple gaining the rights is that they are infusing serious cash into the league. Isn't this good news for those who truly care? No more free rides. Either pay for Apple TV or become a season member. Both options add up to people supporting this product directly and truly. The league has matured enough to warrant this, it's proven out by the fact that Apple is laying out more than 2 billion for this. The younger generation will adapt to this platform seamlessly and intuitively. It's the future.

MLS not longer has to negotiate with networks to get their games aired. There will be no more humiliating pre-empting of MLS to show the end of the Little League World Series or Women's College Softball. It's time to move on to a completely MLS focused platform. Yes, there is a price to pay for this, but it will be the smart thing in the long run.