American soccer fans have not embraced the MLS-Apple partnership like the league expected through two seasons. However, the streamer’s top game analyst, Taylor Twellman, believes the future is still bright because Apple does something major TV networks do not: listen.
In particular, Twellman sees Apple listening to MLS fans. As the league embarks on its third season behind the Apple paywall, Twellman joined the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast and described how he sees Apple executives evolving the MLS Season Pass product for fans.
It starts with the schedule.
“I think Year 3 is actually showing you examples of Apple listening to the fans,” Twellman said. “The fact that the schedule is now staggered this year, the fact that we have a game alone, Sunday Night Soccer, that tells you that I think the first two years, the fans were like, ‘hang on a minute, we’d like to see more than one-and-a-half games because all the games on Saturday night,’ it was kind of limiting the fans being able to look around the league and see that.”
Taylor Twellman is part of the streamer’s top broadcast crew, which will call the inaugural year of Sunday Night Soccer. In addition to the new Sunday primetime offering, Apple and MLS also worked together to stagger the Saturday slate with start times at 4:30, 7:30, and 10:30 p.m. ET. In previous seasons, there were only two Saturday timeslots.
By making the change, Apple gives fans more bang for their buck as MLS Season Pass subscribers. Twellman sees the company’s willingness to adjust as a byproduct of its consumer electronics and services history. You don’t sell billions of iPhones in decades by shouting down customer feedback.
“The one thing that’s very interesting to me is that Apple really does listen to the constructive criticism,” Twellan added, “versus maybe a television partner (like) ESPN or whether it’s Fox, NBC, CBS, [Apple] is a marketing company. They’re a product company. So they’re going to listen to the fans maybe a little bit more so than a television partner or a television network.”
Of course, Twellman is an Apple employee. In defending the streamer’s near-exclusive control of MLS game distribution, Twellman also cited Apple’s willingness to engage in conversations around the league, potentially shifting its schedule to align with the European fall-to-spring calendar. But it would be a surprise to see Twellman criticize his bosses.
And they are indeed worthy of criticism. This month, reports revealed Apple is playing hardball with Fox, capping the number of games the network can air of Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami squad. Rather than playing nice with the only other English-language network to air MLS games, Apple is fighting to keep the vast majority of top games for itself. The streamer has legal rights to do so, but is that what fans want?
Apple does have some wins, including launching its streaming service on Android devices and making it available for purchase through cable providers this year.
That could signal that the streamer is ready to loosen its reins more going forward or just pure desperation. Reports last year showed the MLS Cup Final down nearly 50 percent on Fox, with perhaps as few as 65,000 people watching on Apple TV.
Apple deserves credit for making changes for the 2025 season, but with a situation this bleak, it’s going to take a major bounceback to support Taylor Twellman’s claim that Apple is doing what the fans really want.
