https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/apple-co...deal-.html

Will this lead Apple to other sports like college?

It’ll still be a separate subscription though.

I sure hope not

What's most fascinating perhaps is the pay model.

You guaranteed a threshold, but could potentially make a lot more if the subscriptions take off. I think this was a good move for MLS and they'll get a little more when they sell their linear right although proportionally not as much.

It's clear now that Apple is a player in the market.

All season ticket holders will receive subscriptions. That's a favorable perk.

I honestly think this is too long of a deal. I think they should've done a 5 year deal and struck gold after the 2026 World Cup.

With that said, I think they'll get some more $$$ out of this deal as well. Univision will likely get the Latin American TV rights, plus ESPN/ABC/FOX/NBC will likely air simulcasts of games via a 4 year linear deal. I have no clue how much that will equate to.

This is Apple's second sports deal, having signed a contract with Major League Baseball for Friday night games that began this year. It's a good sign generally that another major player sees sports as a critical part of their programming strategy. To date, Disney (through ESPN+), Paramount, Comcast (Peacock), Amazon and Apple have all acquired significant sports packages for streaming. Netflix hasn't seemed interested, but query whether their recent and projected subscriber losses may cause them to rethink it. HBO Max is also not currently offering sports, but Warner Bros Discovery obviously controls rights to a significant number of sports properties. It would seem likely that they are considering how to integrate sports into the HBO Max platform and are likely to be a player for rights packages in the future.

The biggest issue I have with this is that host markets could lose a portion of their fanbase if games aren't simulcasted locally. Not everyone is cord cutting yet, especially those over 55. Granted demographically MLS fanbase is young compared to other sports, but you can't cut out portions of the fanbase when the sport is still pretty much a niche sport in our country.

(06-15-2022 02:22 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  I honestly think this is too long of a deal. I think they should've done a 5 year deal and struck gold after the 2026 World Cup.

With that said, I think they'll get some more $$$ out of this deal as well. Univision will likely get the Latin American TV rights, plus ESPN/ABC/FOX/NBC will likely air simulcasts of games via a 4 year linear deal. I have no clue how much that will equate to.

MLS is still a niche product -- even among soccer leagues, it has the 3rd largest US TV audience, behind Liga MX and the Premier League. In some ways it has the same issues that a European basketball league has -- it might be your own country's best league, but every sports fan knows the best leagues in the sport are elsewhere.

Until now, US Soccer and MLS pumped up the value of MLS TV rights by packaging them with the rights to USMNT and USWNT friendlies and World Cup qualifying matches. MLS severed that link for the current round of deals. Probably a good move on their part -- the USMNT rights (which were sold recently) aren't worth much going forward, given that the USMNT as a host country automatically qualifies for the 2026 World Cup, thus won't play qualifying matches, and by 2030 the number of teams in the World Cup will be much larger and those matches are effectively exhibitions because there will be almost no way the USMNT could not qualify.

All of that means that everyone is just guessing about the actual value of MLS TV rights.

(06-15-2022 09:25 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  The biggest issue I have with this is that host markets could lose a portion of their fanbase if games aren't simulcasted locally. Not everyone is cord cutting yet, especially those over 55. Granted demographically MLS fanbase is young compared to other sports, but you can't cut out portions of the fanbase when the sport is still pretty much a niche sport in our country.

They don't necessarily have to be locally broadcast.

One, MLS still wants fans to come to the games. The attendance is decent, but there are still plenty of empty seats at a lot of matches. Secondly, these RSNs are struggling...there may not be a good option for a lot of local broadcasts in the near future.

Most importantly, as long as the price point is decent, you don't have to cut the cord, you just have to have internet access and that capacity is only increasing. After all, very few MLS games are OTA. Virtually all of the broadcasts were on cable so we're talking about a demographic that almost certain already has internet access.

(06-15-2022 02:22 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  I honestly think this is too long of a deal. I think they should've done a 5 year deal and struck gold after the 2026 World Cup.

With that said, I think they'll get some more $$$ out of this deal as well. Univision will likely get the Latin American TV rights, plus ESPN/ABC/FOX/NBC will likely air simulcasts of games via a 4 year linear deal. I have no clue how much that will equate to.

Apple was unlikely to invest what they're going to without an extended term sheet. Going back to the marketplace soon after the 2026 World Cup was apparently a game the owners within MLS weren't willing to play.

Keep in mind that Bob Kraft is chair of the NFL's media committee and Clark Hunt chairs the NFL's finance committee, and so many other NFL owners and other sports owners that they've been in the room enough to know what is in the best interest of MLS, then again they decided to not have local media rights sold by individual teams*.

*- Then again, DC United and FC Cincinnati both gave FloSports local rights and that didn't work out well at all.

Definitely agree with the last two points. Huge thing about this is that MLS will be paying for the yearly production fees ($60m/y), plus the start up costs. Saw a few videos from the Athletic Soccer page on YouTube proclaim that Apple needs like a nudge above 4m subscribers just for this to break even, and once they go above a subscription threshold, Apple will be paying paying MLS a sum greater than $250m/y.