MLS, Apple, reach exclusive ten-year deal

Frisco, TX - May 19, 2018 - Toyota Stadium: Game ball during a regular season game (Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)

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

Apple has acquired complete global rights to all Major League Soccer events for the next ten years, including the Leagues Cup, it was announced Tuesday. The company will pay $250 million in what Sports Business Journal characterizes as a “minimum guarantee” rather than a traditional rights fee. MLS currently makes $90 million per year from its incumbent partners ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision.

Under the agreement, every MLS match will be available through a new subscription service available within the Apple TV app, with no local blackouts. While the new service will house all games, it will not be the only place to watch matches. Per Sports Business Journal and The Athletic, some matches will be available for free through the Apple TV app, others will be available with an Apple TV+ subscription, and still others could air on traditional linear television, as the deal will not preclude MLS from reaching deals with linear TV partners. The league is reportedly still in negotiations with its current partners, but those deals will be non-exclusive and any game on those platforms would be simulcast on Apple.

MLS will reportedly produce all of the matches, per Sports Business Journal.

Essentially, one will be able to watch the entire MLS season solely with one over-the-top subscription, eliminating the need to purchase linear cable or an out-of-market package.

If not the biggest splash yet by a streaming service — Amazon’s $1.1 billion/year deal for NFL Thursday Night Football still takes the crown — Apple’s deal with MLS is by far the most comprehensive agreement between a league and a streaming partner. Apple has an existing deal with Major League Baseball for weekly Friday night doubleheaders and is widely believed to be a leading contender to acquire NFL Sunday Ticket.

[News from MLS, Sports Business Journal 6.14, The Athletic 6.14]

Tags: MLS Media Rights

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Comments 6

Samuel says:

4 years ago

This is going to be a complete and total failure. No one is going to watch an entire season of their team’s games online. It’s been hard enough for MLS to get people in this country to tune in when the games are on networks like ABC or FOX, so now all of a sudden they’re watching it online? The league was already somewhat irrelevant and now will head into complete irrelevancy for a decade and probably forever. For people to want to take a league seriously, you still have to present the biggest games on the biggest platforms, like broadcast television. I already think it’s an awful idea that the NHL will have all of its Stanley Cup Final games on TNT in odd numbered years. At least hockey has a decent audience and a league that’s been established for well over a century. MLS is the last league that needs all of its games streaming only. The only league that I think would still survive with that model is the NFL, that’s about it. This is a really bad move.
- Nate Johnson says:
  
  4 years ago
  
  Samuel, I really love reading your comments on here. Very insightful and passionate. I’m going to disagree with you on what you posted. I believe the MLS is actually growing well. There’s more expansions with new teams having strong local support (Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Austin, and Miami). St Louis is coming which is great for them and I would suggest to have an eye out on Phoenix possibly getting one later this decade. These younger millenniums and Gen-X are backing Soccer in their local community and the older millenniums who has children are having family time out there.
  
  Add in the fact that the United States will host the World Cup in 2026 which will only create more excitement for the sport and MLS because there was none in 1994 (though it was founded in 93, first season in 96). Finally, when Messi comes and finish his career in the states for a MLS club that will bring additional attention to the brand like David Beckham did back in 2007.
  
  So this Apple deal is really a great investment from Apple to MLS which increases revenue for the league that they wouldn’t of got from multiple TV partners combined. So it’s very hard to believe this will be a complete and total failure & lead the league to irrelevancy because of this deal. Of course it’s no Barclays, NFL, MLB, NHL or NBA, but it’s definitely rising which is amazing to believe and imagine if the young USMT reaches the knockout stage this December in Qatar and then become Cup Final contenders in their home country in 2026; that would help the league continue to grow.
  - Samuel says:
    
    4 years ago
    
    Sorry Nate, my comment wasn’t to disparage MLS at all, and if it came across that way, that was my mistake. I actually watch the league on a near-weekly basis and it is amazing to see how far the league has grown to 28+ teams. What I was trying to say was that I hate the idea of MLS being buried on a streaming platform because I think the league needs all of the exposure it can get, especially with all these new markets coming into play. Unlike the other established sports, I’m not sure MLS was ready yet to make this move. I wanted to see a bigger deal for broadcast TV and was hoping that CBS, that’s gotten deeply involved with soccer, would get some rights. As I understand, Apple and ESPN might alternate MLS Cup which again, doesn’t seem like the right move to put the league’s biggest game on streaming. But in no way was I downplaying MLS, it just came out the wrong way I guess. Still hoping there’s a linear TV deal in place eventually to go along with this.
    - mrvco says:
      
      4 years ago
      
      Unless I misunderstood completely, the deal isn’t exclusive and is very straight-forward in the sense that MLS fans will know exactly where to watch games week over week. MLS can still cut deals for exposure on broadcast and cable networks.
Esl says:

4 years ago

Paulsen
Can you see a scenario where this is the only rights deal for MLS? Or do you see a linear deal coming through as well?
- Paulsen says:
  
  4 years ago
  
  I imagine there will be some (reduced fee/game) deal with ESPN, Fox and/or Univision. I don’t think you can go completely off of linear TV for ten straight years, at least not yet.