MLS going all-digital with 10-year Apple deal

[IU Hawks fan]

Apple TV Wins MLS Rights in 10-Year Deal Worth at Least $2.5 Billion

Major League Soccer spent years working to ensure all of its TV rights—local, national and international—expired this year, giving the league an opening to transform its broadcast strategy. Now it’s doing just that. MLS and Apple announced a 10-year tie-up Tuesday that will see every match...

sports.yahoo.com

MLS Season Pass on Apple TV | MLSsoccer.com

Everything MLS. All on Apple TV.

www.mlssoccer.com

Click to read more...

 

[OG6ix]

Yikes - this can't be good for growth if your championship game is streaming only. 10 Years? Seems like a long time but they probably got that extra money.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

As someone who was excited about the STL team next year and doesn’t want to add another streaming service….this sucks

 

[Chileiceman]

Does this also mean MLS will leave RSN's since there are no local blackouts? Sounds like it will apply for Canada as well.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Does this also mean MLS will leave RSN's since there are no local blackouts? Sounds like it will apply for Canada as well.

Yes, no more RSNs across both the US & Canada.

 

[LadyStanley]

https://theathletic.com/news/mls-tv-deal-espn-apple-univision/cbC0ubEByeah?

Paywall

$2.5b

So $250m/year?

 

[OG6ix]

Yup

 

[oknazevad]

Bad move. Too soon for any league to go all-streaming, especially on Apple TV+, which is easily the least significant of the major streaming services, and especially for this league, which still struggles to attract the casual viewer. Plus alienating the ESPN machine is never a good idea.

 

[PCSPounder]

So far, I’ve seen nothing saying that they’re pulling out of RSNs. I can say the same about network broadcasts, though if they’re saying Apple will carry every game, it’s a fair bet that network coverage will at least be reduced if not eliminated.

Am I missing a statement on this?

Put this another way… while a different league, a local Portland station has been allowed to cover Portland Thorns games, including last weekend’s game at Houston. They often pick up the direct internet feed (which is sometimes iffy). So I wouldn’t count out local rights without a statement to that effect.

Mind you, my better half recently decided it was time for me to investigate cord-cutting options, so we’ll be ready for this regardless.

 

[Spydey629]

Yikes - this can't be good for growth if your championship game is streaming only. 10 Years? Seems like a long time but they probably got that extra money.

Sports Media Watch tweeted ESPN and Fox will still show “some” games, but they will be non-exclusive.

I would have to think the MLS Cup will still be on regular TV every year.

 

[Reaser]

Yikes - this can't be good for growth if your championship game is streaming only. 10 Years? Seems like a long time but they probably got that extra money.

They're still working on TV deals. Which I imagine won't be anything major (fees wise) and will just exist as something so that they have games simulcast on linear. Figure a small package that includes the Final(s) (MLS Cup, Leagues Cup, Campeones Cup) and random select regular season matches.

Noteworthy they said they're working on the linear TV deals "for the early years" of the apple deal. Meaning they think they can go strictly streaming for at least the second half of the 10-year deal. That's when the "growth if the championship is streaming only" would potentially start to apply.

Basically wait-and-see to see what kind of linear deal they get.

Moving all production in-house is a good move but that costs money so a chunk of the money they're getting from Apple is money MLS has to spend broadcasting the matches.

And a streaming service with an add-on for a specific thing (in this case the MLS add-on) isn't something sports fans can "stumble across" and become fans of/growth. Unlike Joe sports fan finishes watching NFL and is too lazy to change channel and MLS comes on after, it's a sport and it's on TV, so it gets watched.

Regardless, this apple deal initially -none of us know how it'll work out- will be spun into a huge positive and sold as forward thinking. Reality is probably closer to signifying a lack of interest, along with low monetary offers, for the TV rights.

 

[OG6ix]

Sports Media Watch tweeted ESPN and Fox will still show “some” games, but they will be non-exclusive.

I would have to think the MLS Cup will still be on regular TV every year.

I saw this but they would be paying applie as they have exclusivity. MLS will produce all the broadcasts as well. How much of the costs will eat in the revenue?

 

[Spydey629]

Sports Media Watch tweeted ESPN and Fox will still show “some” games, but they will be non-exclusive.

I would have to think the MLS Cup will still be on regular TV every year.

Link from said tweet:

Apple acquires entire MLS package for ten years

In a first for a league of its size, Major League Soccer has sold all of its broadcasting rights to a streaming platform -- Apple.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

 

[OG6ix]

Why would ESPN/FOX want to pay the MLS for non-exclusive games? Their ratings have not been good for the exclusive games they already had.

People complained about the NHL rights. This is far worse imho.

 

[PCSPounder]

Having heard plenty of complaints from fellow Timbers Army, having confirmed 4 weeks ago what I already knew when trying to catch the Timbers on ESPN+ near Yosemite (while getting LAFC v Austin), to put this mildly, I know damn well that this definitely benefits the current younger fan base.

Mind you, I guess I qualify as “old fart” at this point, yet my father beat me to cutting the cord. Still, it may be too soon for the NHL to do this, but for MLS, it’s time.

EDIT- Now I’m seeing that local broadcasts are kaput. Maybe some pushback to that, but I can point to a number of people who were frankly done with ROOT (that deal terminated with the Timbers after last year).

EDIT #2- Apparently MLS, with scant exceptions for stadium conflicts, will go exclusively to Saturday and some Wednesday games, generally at night.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

So even less people in Chicago will know the Fire still exist

Seems like poor move that could setback or curtail any potential growth for league

 

[OG6ix]

So even less people in Chicago will know the Fire still exist

Seems like poor move that could setback or curtail any potential growth for league

Agreed - they really are in a worse position than the EPL who is not even a domestic product. I don't see Linear partners wanting to pay up for non-exclusive games. They were already showing a lack of interest supposedly even before this announcement.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

This isn’t horrible if fans within the teams markets can still watch without it and there are some nationally televised games.

 

[OG6ix]

This isn’t horrible if fans within the teams markets can still watch without it and there are some nationally televised games.

They have gotten away from the regionals with this deal. They packaged all games to sell the rights for more money.

Hence they are marketing "No Blackouts" unlike the NHL deal with ESPN+ who has blackouts due to regionals.

 

[Spydey629]

Lord knows how the world will look in 10 years, but in the near term this looks like it will severely pump the brakes on any growth on the league outside of the local markets.

 

[PCSPounder]

They have gotten away from the regionals with this deal. They packaged all games to sell the rights for more money.

Hence they are marketing "No Blackouts" unlike the NHL deal with ESPN+ who has blackouts due to regionals.

Given that the league is standardizing the schedule, an alternate thought comes to mind… is it really “more money”?

As the details of this come in, it seems boosting paid attendance (STHs, per one trusted source, getting a break or free Apple+ with the ST) is the prime consideration. Which makes me wonder if ESPN and everyone else lowballed.

 

[OG6ix]

Lord knows how the world will look in 10 years, but in the near term this looks like it will severely pump the brakes on any growth on the league outside of the local markets.

I mean... how many people that sub to Apple+ are sports fans? Then how many of the sports fans are soccer fans?

This looks like Don Garber doing his best Gary Bettman impersonation after the 2004 lockout.

Given that the league is standardizing the schedule, an alternate thought comes to mind… is it really “more money”?

As the details of this come in, it seems boosting paid attendance (STHs, per one trusted source, getting a break or free Apple+ with the ST) is the prime consideration. Which makes me wonder if ESPN and everyone else lowballed.

ESPN will blackball the MLS even more now. Whatever coverage they gave the league will go from next to nothing to absolutely nothing lol.

 

[Spydey629]

I mean... how many people that sub to Apple+ are sports fans? Then how many of the sports fans are soccer fans?

This looks like Don Garber doing his best Gary Bettman impersonation after the 2004 lockout.


ESPN will blackball the MLS even more now. Whatever coverage they gave the league will go from next to nothing to absolutely nothing lol.

At least Gary kept the league on TV… even on a revenue sharing deal with NBC, they still had a dedicated time slot every week.

How much of this stems from breaking the MLS and US Soccer rights into two different packages? Makes me think the national teams (men and women) are worth a lot more than the entire North American top tier league.

 

[Reaser]

So even less people in Chicago will know the Fire still exist

Seems like poor move that could setback or curtail any potential growth for league

Yup, and STH's get the apple MLS package for free so that's people not paying for it. It's basically if you're already a MLS fan you *might* pay for a streaming service + paying for the streaming service add-on. No one who doesn't already know/like MLS is going to pay for a MLS add-on to watch MLS.

Can't see how they get much money from ESPN and potentially FOX. What's being said is that their packages will be for much fewer games that they have now. Non-exclusive. Not going to be 100m deals. I'm thinking more like one small step above a time-buy. As far as MLS on ESPN, nothing comes close on ESPN to the amount of people actively turning the channel, 100s of thousands no matter the lead-in turn off ESPN when MLS comes on, then turn back on ESPN when MLS is over. There's nothing else like it, percentage wise. Fewer % turn the channel from ESPN even for "ocho" sports like extreme diving. Average ESPN viewer will keep espn on for whatever is on next with anything espn shows except MLS. Really makes me wonder why ESPN would still want a simulcast package of MLS games at all at this point. A sportscenter re-air would bring twice the viewers. Or on ABC, WNBA gets near 100k more viewers than MLS, not to mention NHL which nearly doubles MLS on ABC. The space, which isn't much already, that MLS takes up on ESPN and ABC can pretty much be a literal anything else and you get more eyeballs. A few more WNBA games, another NHL game or two, and you've saved some money and get better ratings.

However, Univision, I can see giving 10s of millions for Leagues Cup and Campeones Cup since it involves Mexican clubs.

 

[Spydey629]

Couple more details. This article is saying don’t overlook the fact that the international rights are part of this too.

MLS signs 10-year, $2.5-billion-plus global deal with Apple for all MLS matches, with some available in base AppleTV app and some requiring a separate subscription

Beginning in 2023, Apple will have global rights to all MLS matches, which they'll show for one subscription with no blackouts.

awfulannouncing.com