The 2019 MLS TV thread

Might be the case if the only place where people could see the signboards and uniforms were watching games. The DC game against Orlando probably had viewership in the thousands (or possibly a few hundred if it was nationally televised). However, one video of Rooney's "tackle" on youtube alone had almost 3 million views. When you consider how many different videos of that play exist on youtube and other sites, the number of impressions of sponsors in that video like Wells Fargo, Adidas, etc are easily in 8 and possibly even 9 figures. Just because TV ratings are down, doesn't mean that consumption has followed.

 

That's a good point.

Just having MLS highlights broadcast on local and national TV sports news summaries would be a big step forward.

 

See earlier in the thread for the conversation, but at least Chicago and LAFC are streaming only. Maybe it's because I watch too much sports, but at least all three are using streaming services I have heard of. There is no completely out of the blue thing.

 

LAFC's English broadcast is online via YouTube TV. Their Spanish broadcast is on television.

 

Well more sports available for the consumer to watch, not sure on how much the deal is worth.

ESPN signs a Canadian Football League deal. It's a multi-year deal that will see 20 games/season on TV and 65 on ESPN+. SBJ's story: https://t.co/yXKRq7Yqgw

— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) January 14, 2019

 

In @sbjsbd this week: @dcunited's new b'cast deal with @flosports comes with the promise of more content than ever before for viewers/fans.

It also comes with a rights fee - the 1st time the club has ever received one - valued at $13m across the 4 years https://t.co/k09sHm0zhb

— Ian Thomas (@byIanThomas) January 14, 2019

 

Wow. Using rough numbers (say 24 matches not on national tv) that's roughly 135k a game unless I'm way off

 

3.25 million per year is not bad at all for a local deal.

 

I wish the previous thread was still open so I could join in the curling talk. I'm curious to see how Rachel Homan fares later in the season given her pregnancy.

I'm doing research for a new book, and it's so frustrating that we don't have numbers for the last week of the MLS season with the FS1 wraparound coverage. Must have been really bad.

And season averages tend to be reported in percentages rather than hard numbers. Wikipedia links to you guys.

 

Watching her right now on ESPN3 with Kevin Koe in mixed doubles in the Continental Cup at the Orleans in Vegas. She's been light on the final stone in the first two ends and the World is up to a huge lead over North America already.

 

And to bring this back on topic a bit, I was surprised to see that the Canadian Curling Association contract continued with ESPN3. I thought for sure that it would be a candidate to move to ESPN+ this year.

 

ESPN the ocho needs content.

 

She and Koe weren't the least bit prepared for doubles. Neither of them can sweep. Koe slides with a broom he can't use for sweeping. That was a disaster.

 

I don't quite understand the MLS broadcast contracts...

Some context for my questions I live in a regional coastal village [Umina Beach if you are into google imagines or maps] roughly an hour north of Sydney [Australia ] and have been watching the MLS and its growth and still have not been able to get a complete picture of how MLS broadcast media deals are put together. Essentially I am looking to understand how MLS broadcast media contracts work.

This is my understanding, no doubt hopeless wrong ..

Next season you will have around 408 regular season games and ??? playoff games... all capable of being broadcast.

Fox will broadcast ????? games, do Fox broadcast, on a free to air platform or subscription platform.
ESPN broadcast ????? games and I assume these are on subscription platform.
Univision broadcast ???? games, and if I am right is broadcast across a Spanish speaking subscription platform.

However not all games are broadcast with from the above ???? games broadcast.

In addition ... some or all clubs ... have individual contracts with local broadcast, some FTA some Subscription, some streamed.

In addition to all of the above there are a number of streaming contracts.

Thanks in advance

 

Since I'm in Davenport, Iowa (if you'd like to google it, I'm pretty much in the northern part of the center of our country, right on the Mississippi River) and love to watch the A League, I think I can help you out.

First thing you have to understand is that we have "tiers" of channels here in the US. The largest, most watched are the networks, of which there are between 6 to 8, but realistically 4 big ones and other small ones. These are usually called networks, and are free to air (which you might see abbreviated as FTA), as long as you have an antenna to receive them. They're national, but only because they have a local affiliate in each city that actually broadcasts them. They are ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox is really the newest of these. Each network controls only part of what a local affiliate broadcasts, which is less important now than it used to be. There have been occasions in the past when some local affiliates have chosen not to broadcast an MLS game, though it doesn't happen so much any more.

Next you have what we still call cable channels, though many of us watch them on satellite now. There is a basic channel package that most people can buy, and this is where you will find ESPN and Fox Sports 1 (FS1). This is usually somewhere around 50-70 channels, and you will see it nearly everywhere. You can buy bigger and bigger numbers of channels in packages, as well, and I would guess there is somewhere in the vicinity of 250 channels available in the US. ESPN2 can be in basic, but is usually no further down than the next biggest package, while FS2 is usually only in the biggest packages, or in a package of other sports channels. Additionally, you have regional sports networks, which usually only broadcast in one area, but are affiliated with one of the above cable and networks. For example, here we get NBC Sports Chicago, which is affiliated with network NBC and cable channel NBC Sports Network.

There are also Spanish language channels here. Univision is probably the largest, and actually belongs to NBC. In some places, usually the bigger cities, they are a FTA network, but not all (there is no Univision affiliate locally here for instance, but there is one in Chicago). They also have Univision Deportes, which is their own Spanish language sports channel.

Under the current TV deal, both Fox and ESPN are showing something like 35 regular season games, which is roughly one per week since MLS has 34 rounds plus playoffs. There is some flexibility in the exact number of games shown, and when they show them. Typically, national broadcasts are on Sundays, but especially later in the season you will see the occasional midweek game get shown. There are also minimum standards as to which channel carries the game, so for example sometimes MLS games are on ESPN, sometimes on ESPN2. Almost never will they show up on ESPN's network affiliate, which is ABC. Fox, on the other hand, will put some games on the Fox network, though the majority are on FS1. Typically, only if another event goes into their time will an MLS game be shown on FS2, as this is a much smaller channel that many fewer people have. Also with this current deal, the Univision games are now exclusive games. They show roughly the same number of games, and the majority, but not all are on Univision. Sometimes they are simulcast (as in, shown simultaneously on multiple channels) on Univision and Univision Deportes.

Most teams have 8 of their games, on average, shown on national TV (the channels get to pick, so some teams have more, some teams have less). Thus, there are usually 26 or so left, and teams make deals in their own markets as to what channel these are shown on. Usually in the past, it has either been a regional sports network, such as NBC Sports Chicago for the Chicago Fire or Fox Sports North for Minnesota United, or on one of the local affiliates of one of the networks in the time they are allowed to show their own programming. If there is a secondary market available, sometimes this can even also show the games, such as Minnesota United getting shown on Fox Sports Wisconsin, which is the next state east. However, sometimes this has caused problems, because baseball eats up a lot of time and attention, so it can be hard to get your local games shown.

Because of this conflict with baseball, and because fewer people are willing to pay for cable when they can get shows on various streaming options, multiple teams have decided to switch away from local channels for their games and go with one of the streaming options. The Fire, which is my team and the reason I am using them as an example, switched away from NBC Sports Chicago prior to last season and to ESPN+, which is the pay streaming service owned by ESPN (they also have ESPN3, which comes free with your subscription to ESPN). ESPN+ also has the right to show all the local games not from your area, so if you pay for it you also get those. (They also have the rights to the Hyundai A League, if you care.) MLS used to do this themselves, but ESPN bought those rights in the last package. LAFC signed with YoutubeTV, which is a pay version of Youtube, and just this season, DC United signed with FloSports, which is a streaming service that has previously made its name showing mostly smaller sports that don't usually make it to TV, such as wrestling or volleyball.

We're now seeing these various streaming services compete with each other, along with their TV broadcast brethren for eyeballs and subscription dollars. Cable channels, and ESPN is the biggest, are losing subscribers, but they are still by far the bigger thing than the streamers. How long that will last and if streaming is the wave of the future is anyone's guess, hence some of the conversations up thread. This is honestly a brief summary, but hopefully it helped, please let me know.

 

I haven't heard free-to-air in more than 20 years. Over-the-air or OTA is much more likely used a term/acronym.

NBC does not own Univision. NBC Universal owns Telemundo.

 

On the first, I've heard both and recently. They seem to be used interchangeably. On the second, my bad. I did know that, and simply screwed up.

 

I remember FTA from when trying to pull channels on dishes at my grandparents' homes many years ago so I think of satellite more than terrestrial.

 

I hear Baseketball season is about to start.

 

Thanks

You explained it better than I have read elsewhere.

Also you live in a nice part of the world from what google shows.

Question without notice... why do you broadcast so few games at a national level? Seems you could broadcast up to another 300 games .

From afar with say 408 MLS games + finals + international games and womens games you may have over 700 games thats enough it seems to me to have a Football specific channel.

 

Why would we do that? Very few people outside the home team's market care about MLS games. The big boys (ESPN/FS1/etc) have better things to show...

I am sure we can get more on the air if we had a deal with the likes of BeIn, GolTV, Outdoor Channel, etc but the teams probably get better exposure than that from their local sports stations.

Also YouTube TV is not a paid version of YouTube, it's YouTube's live TV streaming option. In traditional terms, LAFC's "TV" deal requires people to get a new cable provider ($40/month). Probably the worst TV situation in all MLS. However, their saving grace is that they also have a Spanish TV deal, which is OTA.