City SC is back after its rousing MLS debut season, and also returning for Year 2 is the league’s controversial television deal with Apple, in which the vast majority of its matches are exclusively streamed.
That means there is no conventional television coverage for almost all the league’s contests, including 31 of City’s 34 games. To receive all MLS contests as well as much more soccer-specific programming, a subscription to “MLS Season Pass†is required, which costs $12.99 monthly or $79 annually for those who have an Apple TV+ account or $14.99/$99 for the season for those who do not.
There again will be some games available to be streamed , starting with four this weekend (City’s SC’s opening match, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at home against Salt Lake, is not included).
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Gone is the offer that allowed T-Mobile customers to have a free subscription, but returning is a deal that allows season-ticket holders to receive the package without charge.
There again will be a handful of games (39 of the league’s 493 matches) carried on a traditional channel, both Fox properties — 15 on its broadcast network (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) and 19 on cable’s FS1, and Apple also will stream these. City SC again is set for three of these appearances — April 14 (vs. Austin) and Sept. 1 (vs. LA Galaxy), both Sundays, on KTVI, plus July 20 (at Kansas City) on FS1.
But for the most part, it will be the pay-to-watch business model, and if you’ve been willing to do so, you’ve probably been happy with the investment.
Apple’s productions generally have been of high quality, and the partnership has given the league much more coverage than it received on its arrangements with linear TV networks. In addition to the match telecasts, whip-around coverage of games in progress is offered along with many other features and programming.
Casual fans miss out
But the trouble is that casual sports fans or those just looking for something to watch who might become interested in the league if they stumble across a match are not going to find this package. The setup certainly wasn’t an ideal way to boost interest in ºüÀêÊÓƵ last year for curiosity seekers who might have become smitten by the new-to-the-market MLS by sampling 10 or so matches if they were on a regular television channel, especially with the local team’s storybook season that included the Western Conference regular-season title.
Longtime national sports-talk commentator Colin Cowherd, whose “The Herd†show airs on FS1 among other outlets, addressed the issue on his show last week. He said that in the past, before MLS moved mostly to streaming last year, he “would watch a dozen games in the summer, over the course of a season. If it was on, I would watch it.
“Then they took the Apple money and went behind a paywall. You know how many times I watched them (last) year? Once you go behind a paywall to a streamer, you lose all those incidental, casual viewers, and nobody talks MLS.â€
Keep in mind that Cowherd works for Fox, the company that has the league’s small amount of available-to-all telecasts.
“Now they got the (cash) bag,†he said. “It would be like if I went behind a paywall for $9 a month and a company like an Amazon bought me. I’d make a lot of money. (But) I’d lose 90% of my audience. MLS said, ‘We’re going to take the streamer money.’ Where are their games?â€
The answer is that most are on a platform that draws a younger crowd, an audience for which streaming is the preferred way to watch. That ties in to MLS having a more youthful fan base than many other U.S. sports.
MLS commissioner Don Garber, in a statement, called the Apple deal’s launch last year “a transformational moment for our league.†He added “the first season overdelivered, and year two is going to be even better.â€
Apple cashed in big when international megastar Lionel Messi signed with MLS’ Miami franchise at midseason last year because Apple has international streaming rights for the league.
“The first year of our partnership with Major League Soccer exceeded expectations and brought MLS to more fans than ever before,†Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, added in the statement. “We look forward to building upon that momentum, celebrating Messi’s first full season with the league, and delivering MLS fans the best experience possible.â€
But Messi often playing behind a paywall last season did not seem to impress Cowherd.
“Whatever is accessible†is what he will watch, he said. “My (MLS) viewership went down 80%.â€
The Apple deal has other flaws, including dragging the season out even longer than NASCAR’s in order to have mostly Saturday night games. The schedule began this week and continues through mid-October. By then the baseball season, which doesn’t even start for more than a month, will be well into its playoffs. And football season will be nearing its midpoint — and training camps don’t even open for five more months.
Then the MLS playoffs will run into December.
Then there were some very fan-unfriendly starting times last year to accommodate Apple — a City SC home playoff game on a rainy Sunday night not starting until nearly 9:30 p.m. was a prime example. Adding to the aggravation is NBA- and NHL-like bold lies to fans about the scheduled kickoff times of some contests. That aforementioned match was listed as beginning at 9 p.m., making the big gap look like a ploy to lure a captive audience into the park early in hopes those duped fans would use that extra time to open their wallets to the concession stands.
By the numbers
Apple has refused to disclose how many MLS subscribers it has or how many people are watching individual games.
Sports Business Journal reported last week that sources said Apple had surpassed 2 million MLS customers by the end of last season, more than half being added after Messi’s arrival. However, there was the free access for MLS season ticket-holders and those T-Mobile customers, plus there were other discounted deals. So how many actually paid full fare is a mystery as the parties enter Round 2 of a 10-year deal that reportedly is worth $250 million annually to the league. Sources have said Apple is cutting two cameras from some of its telecasts this season.
Last year, City SC wound up on conventional television three times during the regular season and once in the playoffs, while also being shown on Apple. Those ratings were somewhat of a disappointment, and we say “somewhat†because while viewership levels are reported for the network telecasts, the streaming audience size is not.
Two regular-season games on FS1 averaged a paltry 1.2% of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ market according to viewership-tracking company Nielsen. The team did better for its lone over-the-air appearance, on Fox (Channel 2), drawing a 3.8 rating for a Sunday afternoon match in June. That was the third-best figure for a sporting event shown on ºüÀêÊÓƵ TV that weekend, behind two Cardinals games and beating one. If the Apple viewership would have been announced, the combined rating for the City game might have been No. 1 for that period. But we just don’t know.
However, it was back to a less-than-stellar rating for the club’s much-anticipated franchise-first playoff game. The contest against Kansas City, on Oct. 29, was on FS1 and seen in 2.1% if the market. That wasn’t terrible but certainly short of eye-opening. Again, the Apple figure is a mystery, so no definitive analysis can be made. Plus, that audience size certainly was affected by Kansas City surging to 3-1 halftime lead en route to a 4-1 victory in that late-starting game that didn’t end until nearly 11:30 p.m. on a work/school night as people tuned out to go to bed.
But Apple is going after a much bigger market than just MLS cities — or even the entire United States.
Cue, the Apple executive, said the goal is to “build upon this game-changing partnership, which is bringing Major League Soccer to its largest global audience ever.â€