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Kevin Egan chats with Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sasha Krizestan and Andrew Wiebe during rehearsal for “MLS 360.”
new york
CNN
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Soccer will resume in earnest this weekend. Sorry, the other person.
Saturday marks the beginning of Apple’s second year of streaming Major League Soccer games. The 10-year, $2.5 billion deal is part of an ambitious effort to attract more fans and money to the 28-year-old league, which has long struggled to gain relevance. Overshadowed by other North American sports.
Central to that plan is the MLS Season Pass. It’s a sleekly designed streaming package that eliminates the fragmentation that plagues other sports and allows fans to stream every game, blackout-free, around the world on his Apple TV app.
The package costs $14.99 per month or $99 per season, but is slightly cheaper for existing Apple TV+ subscribers ($12.99 per month or $79 per year). It includes all regular season games, plus the playoffs and finals, as well as League Cup and lower-level MLS Next Pro and MLS Next games.
“We are creating something new,” Sasha Krizestan, a former MLS player and current broadcast personality, told CNN. “It came out of nothing and I think people will look back on it in 10 years. This could be a game-changer in modern television media.”
Kriestan co-hosts “MLS 360,” which airs Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. ET when the majority of weekly MLS games are played. Think of “360” as the “NFL RedZone” for football addicts. Lead anchor Kevin Egan Analyst Andrew Wiebe and former soccer players Kaylin Kyle and Bradley Wright-Phillips will show viewers up to 10 simultaneous games, show highlights and provide analysis.
Similar to how NBC and CBS handle the NFL, Apple’s streaming pregame and postgame coverage will expand to an hour starting this year, with the latter starting at a set time. (12:30 a.m. ET, mostly after games) of Saturday’s game). Also, this season, a new Spanish version of “360” will be broadcast simultaneously with the English version.
The glossy Studio Show features slick graphics and coverage changes to make games easier to find. and watch worked well, especially compared to previous MLS coverage deals, where games were shown on a patchwork of television networks and local affiliates.
“Once people tuned in to this product, they tuned in for longer than the linear version in years past,” said Camilo Durana, executive vice president of Apple Partnerships, Properties and Events for MLS. told CNN.
“Consumers have responded well to the quality of our products and the care we’ve taken working with Apple to produce products that look great, feel premium, and are manufactured in the best possible way.” “We know that,” he added.
A small number of matches are still shown on broadcast networks such as FOX in the US, TSN in Canada and RDS in French, with their own commentators. Due to a deal with Apple, the game will no longer be aired on local broadcast partners.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Columbus Crew after winning the 2023 MLS Cup in December.
Expanding beyond television
Apple has also helped expand MLS’s presence in other products it owns, making an escape from soccer virtually impossible.
On Wednesday, Apple released a new sports app that displays MLS live scores and encourages people to watch with MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. (Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the service launched on the same day that soccer superstar Lionel Messi made his first full-season debut with Inter Miami, streamed exclusively on Apple TV.) )
MLS content will also appear in the Apple News, Maps and Music apps, and games can be viewed on the new $3,499 Vision Pro headset. The league released team-branded Beats by Dre headphones this year (also owned by his Apple) and streamed player-curated playlists on Apple Music.
According to Durana, the idea is to “integrate more broadly within Apple’s ecosystem of products and services to make the experience even better,” which will satisfy existing fans and ideally will attract new fans to MLS.
Of course, all this promotion means nothing if no one watches or pays. Apple does not release viewer or subscriber numbers. Sports Business Journal recently reported that this package has “surpassed” his 2 million subscribers, as the service is now free to his T-Mobile subscribers and his MLS season ticket holders. However, it is unclear how many people actually pay the fees.
Durana also declined to give figures, but said that 2023 saw a “large and very strong wave of mid-year additions” after Messi signed with Inter Miami.
Analysis by Antenna shows that before Messi’s arrival, the number of new subscribers to the MLS Season Pass was 6,000 per day, but after signing Messi, the number jumped to 110,000 per day. consistent with third-party reports. Antenna said the year-old streaming package’s “Messi Effect” was “unique and profound.”
Even if the actual viewer numbers are lower, Apple’s $250 million annual cost is effectively a “rounding error” for a company worth about $3 trillion. And Santosh Rao, partner and head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners, told CNN: “This is another sticky service that brings people into its ecosystem, so it’s a good investment.”
Even if ratings in the U.S. don’t reach the level of other leagues like the NFL or NBA, the deal’s “overall “It’s been a success,” he admitted.
“There’s nothing like live sports. That’s the best you can offer,” Rao said.
