Major League Soccer (MLS) agrees to 10-year, $2.5 billion TV deal with Apple; MLS games will no longer be on local TV

Is this good for MLS?


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concise

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Well again I would imagine that most people watching local affiliates are already on streaming. It’s not like these games were playing on local ABC/Fox affiliates. “Local” is being overstated a bit here.

Needs a little context and nuance…….Every market is different but I don’t think access is being hampered as much as it appears.

Less options is always a bad thing. More hoops is always a bad thing. You must have missed how pissed Yankee fans were with the team signing an exclusive deal with Apple for most of their Friday games.
 

The ADD

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Less options is always a bad thing. More hoops is always a bad thing. You must have missed how pissed Yankee fans were with the team signing an exclusive deal with Apple for most of their Friday games.
Again that lacks context of what people were doing to get the content in the first place.

I don’t know the ends and outs of the Yankee deal but that two vastly different demographics for certain.

I mean if the default is to not take all the factors into account then I guess I’m having the wrong discourse :manny:
 
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Spiritual Stratocaster

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We are growing but this ain't the move. Hell I support our local squad and we have a great crowd.
Yea Sounders up here get good support but even then I don't think folks would want to shell out money for Apple TV...

I reckon people will either just goto the matches in person or just not watch.

I'm not getting apple TV just to watch the Sounders..if I want to see them enough I'd shell out $80-150 to watch at the stadium.
 

Spiritual Stratocaster

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MLS is a moneymaking Ponzi Scheme. They don’t care about growing the sport or making it more popular.

This is 100% on brand for the league.
Yea they should be putting pressure on reorganize the youth system here in America and youth academy setup.

Make youth academies easier to get into for poorer kids..especially immigrants...run em like the best run European academies are run.
 

Jcotton1

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Yea Sounders up here get good support but even then I don't think folks would want to shell out money for Apple TV...

I reckon people will either just goto the matches in person or just not watch.

I'm not getting apple TV just to watch the Sounders..if I want to see them enough I'd shell out $80-150 to watch at the stadium.

It's on my list to see a Live Sounders game. It looks dope watching it on my direct kick MLS package via direct tv. My lil cousin plays now and his dad played over in London for a bit. The futbol bug is alive and well in America. I also played. My current girl played over in Germany .
 

Saint1

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It'll be hard to gain new followers but you gotta get that cash now. Who knows what will happen tomorrow
 

nyknick

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Good deal especially if Deadline's report about no local blackouts or restrictions is true (The Athletic says otherwise).

MLS was previously on $90m per year from ESPN/FOX/Univision and apparently Fox wasn't really interested this time around. EPL gets $450m a year from NBC so $250m a year is a fair deal.

For the 2021 regular season, MLS said it averaged 276,000 viewers for 31 regular-season games across ESPN channels, including ABC. That’s up from the average 233,000 viewers who consumed 39 MLS games in 2020 on ESPN platforms.
NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, said it averaged 414,000 viewers for its English Premier League soccer package for the 2020-21 season. And so far in EPL’s current season, NBC Sports said games averaged 609,000 viewers across its TV channels.
 

Spiritual Stratocaster

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It's on my list to see a Live Sounders game. It looks dope watching it on my direct kick MLS package via direct tv. My lil cousin plays now and his dad played over in London for a bit. The futbol bug is alive and well in America. I also played. My current girl played over in Germany .
It's the atmosphere...the chants, the drums, the March down to the stadium. Sounders and even down in Portland the supporters try to get that European match day experience.

I think that should be a focus of the clubs. Encourage supporter clubs....let them bring in drums...give em sections in the stadium,etc.
 

beejus

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It's on my list to see a Live Sounders game. It looks dope watching it on my direct kick MLS package via direct tv. My lil cousin plays now and his dad played over in London for a bit. The futbol bug is alive and well in America. I also played. My current girl played over in Germany .

Not sure where you stay at, but yeah get out here to see a Seattle game. Usually rivalry week is in August and a good time to come when Portland is in town.

Yea they should be putting pressure on reorganize the youth system here in America and youth academy setup.

Make youth academies easier to get into for poorer kids..especially immigrants...run em like the best run European academies are run.

Youth soccer is growing here and the MLS academies are starting to put more effort/money/time into their youth programs. Seattle Sounders youth teams regularly play in international tournaments and win out against well known club teams youth players. MLS youth academy players do not have to pay if they make the academy team. With that said youth soccer is still way too much. Don't ask me how much I just paid to have my son join one of the top clubs in the area.
 

tremonthustler1

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I’m a STH for NYCFC, so from a home game perspective I’m unaffected. I do think no blackouts is appealing but I hate having to sign up for another streaming service. You see his every network has a streaming service? Now it’s like that but for leagues and for someone like myself who woulda canceled Amazon Prime if not for exclusive Yankee games, it’s just unnecessary. I hope it grows the league and I get it. I just prefer options that don’t require streams.
 
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