MLS has entered Year 3 of its media rights agreement with Apple, and the lack of accessibility for fans continues to be a concern for a number of league executives.
Beginning this season, Apple and MLS have taken numerous steps to address those concerns. The league has introduced a Sunday Night Soccer match window that is available in front of the MLS Season Pass paywall and designed to highlight the league’s best teams. Fans can also find games in their DirecTV and Xfinity channel lineups, though will still need to pay for a Season Pass subscription to access games that way. T-Mobile customers are able to access Season Pass for free, a promotion the league also ran in its first season on Apple TV. And finally, the Apple TV app is available to Android mobile users.
However, these are all small steps when looking at the big picture issues for the league. MLS has minimal presence on linear television, limited to just 34 matches between Fox and FS1. Worse yet, only two of those matches feature the league’s biggest star, Lionel Messi, as Apple wants to have the international superstar to themselves.
The reality is, if someone wants to follow MLS like they would any other professional sports league, they’ll need to purchase MLS Season Pass for $99. And even then, they’ll have to open up the Apple TV app in order to find the games.
That presents a huge challenge for a league that is still in growth mode. And for some executives who participated in an anonymous survey conducted by The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio and Felipe Cardenas, MLS would be better off ditching its Apple deal entirely.
One GM told The Athletic, “They have to end the deal with Apple. It’s bad for the fans.” Another said, “I think we have to be on more linear outlets. We have to be on ABC, NBC, Fox more regularly because I think a lot more people watched our games when we were in that space. I think Apple and the whole streaming thing is really innovative and it’s probably where things will be going, but I don’t think that MLS is the leader of that. I don’t think enough has been put behind the subscription model. You’re a different league when you’re a subscription-based league. I don’t think the effort has been put in like it should be.”
MLS already finds itself behind the proverbial eight-ball because it has to compete with top-flight leagues around the world such as the English Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga, and many others, which all command large followings from American audiences.
“The reason why people don’t watch (MLS) now is as simple as you can watch anything all over the world,” one GM told The Athletic. “You can watch American football, soccer. The amount of hours to dedicate a weekend to watching something, you can choose one of hundreds of things to watch. If you want basketball, no offense to MLS, but are you going to turn on the Serbian league? You’re not. You’re going to watch the best product.”
When some of the best leagues in the world are available on linear television, or on a streaming service like Peacock or Paramount+ that costs significantly less than MLS Season Pass and includes many other content offerings, it’s easy to understand why executives and fans alike are feeling frustrated.
While certain MLS brass may want out of their media rights deal sooner rather than later, it’s Apple who holds the cards. The streamer reportedly has an opt-out in its contract after the fifth year of the agreement, which would be following the 2027 season.
