MLS on TV Updates

1. MLS on Apple
Last month Apple announced the price structure for its MLS offering. Retail cost will be $15 per month or $99 a year. Fans with Apple TV+ (ATV+) already can get it for $13/$79. Apple will be giving the person paying for MLS season tickets the application for free.

For whatever reason, they are not allowing customers to purchase the option until Feb. 1, 2023.

The MLS Season Pass application will exist within the Apple TV as a stand-alone service (meaning; an app within the app). Apple TV+ ($7 per month) will show a couple MLS games a week outside of the MLS app.

Apple and MLS will be producing all the matches themselves.

2. ESPN Out, FOX Sticks Around

With Apple more or less buying everything MLS offers on a screen, traditional linear TV companies will not be able to produce games when acquiring rights. More or less this means that they would just be airing the Apple broadcast feed. Since Apple is so large, pretty much every potential media partner is a competitor making it a difficult sell.

After being with MLS since day one 27 years ago, Disney (ABC/ESPN) is out as an MLS TV partner. Going back to the early 90s, you will remember that jumping into MLS was one of Disney's first big buys after taking over ABC. After all these years it is surprising MLS would not do everything possible to keep ESPN on board. ESPN likely knows more about MLS than MLS.

FOX decides to stick around and carry a normal schedule of MLS games. They only signed on for four years, taking them to the 2026 World Cup (to which they own rights). This means they will air around 15 games on big FOX and another dozen or so on FS1/FS2.

No financial details of the FOX deal were given. This likely means FOX is doing this at cost (Free).

3. Leagues Cup

Univision opted to not carry regular season MLS games but will show a "select" amount of Leagues Cup events along with FOX's FS1/2. Univision will likely stick with Club America for as many games as they have in the month-long event.

The Leagues Cup is now a month-long tournament and MLS will suspend their regular season while it is going on.

4. No NFL on Apple

I mention this because the NFL and MLS are very intertwined. MLS was more or less born from the NFL in 1995 and reborn with even stronger ties in 2002. Apple's $2.5b investment into MLS could have been seen as a sort of down payment to carry the NFL's own "Direct Kick" package now that it is up for bid. 

It was announced last night that both parties are stepping away from the negotiating table.

What does this mean? Speculation: I think Apple will probably adjust its MLS product within the next 12 months or so. Either knocking down the price or just offering it as part of the ATV+ sub fee.

MLS Viewership: Low Tide

The best thing Major League Soccer got out of their new TV deal(s) last year with ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision was the regular time slots. The money is great (fine?) I'm sure, but judging by the new CBA it appears that most of that dough is earmarked for things not directly related to league operations.

The reason I like the regular slots is a little bit different then you might think. Of course it does help to know that late Sunday afternoons and evenings have a couple games on, but really, it's just that. A couple games are on. MLS wants so badly to be the NFL but they can't seem to work that out. One of the key ingredients of regular time slots for the NFL is that just about every team is playing at the same time. It's a gridiron explosion. Same thing with the college guys on Saturdays. Fans bask in the shared moments all across the country. So, no. Or yes. Whatever. Having consistent slots is good for MLS, but it's so paper thin. The Real Reason MLS coming on every Sunday (and Friday evening, and on the same channels) is because it improves the system by which we measure improvement (and failure).

In the past, MLS had games on the same channels, but the times jumped all over the place. Sure, ratings best compare to PBA Bowling, the WNBA and college softball but there was no way nailing down exactly where the league stood. With time slots floating all over you have a lot of noise. Maybe a game between LA Galaxy and Portland with an EPL lead in bumps ratings or how about a lonely Saturday night matchup in the fall between Colorado and DC United. I'd be working long hours trying to sort that out if I were a television industry professional (it'd probably include lots of calls to the local PR firm as well).

With these consistent MLS slots we can now more clearly see what is going on. The way it was best described to me during a Kaisen event many years ago was "being able to see all the rocks when the tide is low." What that means is removing as much clutter as possible (like a 5S) so see where the issues and challenges might be.

For as long as I've been paying attention, Soccer has always done pretty well on the small screen while at the same time MLS has always had a TV viewership issue. Excuses are many. Leading the list has always been time slots. Followed closely by quality of play, American's general hate for soccer, it's just too boring, broadcast quality (announcers, commentary, camera angles), league structure (single entity), etc... Along with the success of the English Premier League on NBC Sports - this deal wipes out many of those and will force the league to address some challenges they might not do otherwise (quality, league structure being the two big items).

To give you an idea of where MLS falls in the hierarchy of US sports (extremely general):

Millions (and millions): NFL. A regular Sunday afternoon matchup can top 10 million. The NFL juggernaut (preseason games get over a million). Millions: NCAA College Football. Millions: NCAA March Madness Final Four type games. About a Million: NBA and NHL regular season games. Close to a million: MLB games across poplar channels. Keep in mind the length of NBA, NHL and especially MLB.

Next up is English Premier League on NBC Sports and Real Madrid, Barcelona types on Bein Sports. These games tend to draw somewhere between 500-800k (El Clascio draws over 2 million). F1 and NASCAR racing sort of bounce between top tier and this 2nd group.

Outside of those guys fall the lower tier sports (3rd tier). WNBA, Bowling and MLS all fall around the 250-350k range on channels like ESPN 2 and Fox Sports.

The Challenge for MLS going forward will be to break free from the bottom group. The EPL on NBC has proven that it can happen for a soccer league and not just the World Cup. How that happens is something MLS has to figure out. Ratings might stink (they do) but now at least they know a few of the reasons why they do. They might not like what the see but hopefully they work on that.