New MLS Rights Deal Shows Just How Serious Apple Is About TV
The TV rights to Major League Soccer were among the largest big-league sports rights remaining on the market this decade, as the league hoped to cash in on increased interest in the sport and a ballooning fees for live events.
That all paid off on Tuesday, as MLS announced a new, 10-year deal with Apple TV+ worth a reported $2.5 billion.
Some of the highlights up front:
The average of $250 million per year for MLS rights is nearly triple the current cross-partner deal worth $90 million per
Importantly, this isn’t even for exclusivity — as The Athletic notes that MLS are able to negotiate additional deals with current linear partners ESPN, Fox and Univision as well, and those games will also appear on Apple TV+
There will be no local blackouts or restrictions
While some MLS games will appear on Apple TV+ for free, watching every MLS game will require a separate subscription within the app
Got all that? Cool. Diving in a bit more…
It can’t be overstated how much this is a game-changer for MLS in terms of its financial state and stature in the U.S. live sports market. The league has long sat well below the “big four” leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) and many of the top college conferences in terms of importance. That’s still true, but the gap has potentially decreased quite a bit here with the Apple contract alone — never mind how much more MLS can make from additional linear deals rumored above.
While you could previously watch just a handful of non-local MLS matches on TV each week, this makes the league far better distributed than before… if people are willing to pay Apple TV+ a little extra, of course.
That’s a big bet, to be honest, given where MLS ranks in the current U.S. sports environment. However, that environment may be well on its way to changing. A MoffattNathanson report from December 2021 shows MLS jumped from 13th to seventh by popularity among domestic pro sports leagues. With every streaming service seemingly grabbing onto international soccer to drive subscriptions and the sport’s governing body even starting its own FAST, it’s clear that momentum is on MLS’s side here. And that’s before this winter’s World Cup and the 2026 event that will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and is certain to drive interest even higher.
So the question of whether people will pay more for all of that is almost inconsequential for Apple, even if it does matter for MLS. Apple’s basically test-driving a couple things here: how much more people will pay for live sports, how much avoiding local blackouts matters to consumers, and then how interested U.S. audiences are when it comes to soccer. The answers there guide a lot of Apple’s TV future as it inevitably becomes a larger player in future bidding wars for live events (sports or otherwise).
For as much as the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB have all had streaming options for years, those packages have cost consumers a significant amount of money and still don’t help them get around the local blackout rule; ultimately forcing users to also contract with an MVPD or vMVPD to watch the team in their respective market.
Apple working with MLS to dictate that local blackouts aren’t a thing anymore could pave the way for the future of streaming sports packages — including the upcoming NFL Sunday Ticket rights that Apple’s supposedly bidding for as well. And if Apple’s the only provider who can avoid local blackouts, suddenly the service becomes a lot more appealing for fans. Fans hate blackouts and would potentially flock to the service for live sports if and when it had more than “just” MLS matches and Friday night MLB action.
Apple avoiding local blackout rules is how it eventually helps usher consumers away from linear. Granted, that could be into the waiting arms of other services with more sports rights and/or more live TV options. But Apple certainly seems to be stacking up reasons why consumers don’t “need” linear anymore if it’s going to start removing content gates like these.
Even if it fails to pick up any additional sports rights in the next couple years (unlikely), creating a blackout-free structure and one with what’s probably a modest fee on top of its already dirt-cheap monthly subscription price plots a path for streaming competitors to get into the game, too. And again, that just means more interest in streaming, which ultimately helps Apple.
Of course, there’s more down the road for Apple on this front — just like there was when it signed the MLB Friday Night deal. Unlike network-affiliated streamers, Apple has an endless warchest at its disposal to keep adding capabilities to TV+ and can outbid everyone but Amazon, perhaps, for sports rights. Add some more sports and a few more must-watch shows, and it becomes increasingly difficult to just pass Apple TV+ by when consumers evaluate which service provides the most value, especially when up against costly bloat like what Netflix has seemingly devolved into.
