January 31 – The MLS’s groundbreaking 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple is starting to show cracks after just two seasons, with not even Lionel Messi driving the subscriber growth that was predicted for the streaming service both within the US and internationally.
Apple holds the worldwide broadcast rights exclusively and has added over a million subscribers with an average weekly viewership hitting 1 million in the US. But it doesn’t look like it is enough for the tech and entertainment giant, and certainly not enough reach for the MLS if it is looking to be front and centre in the US sports entertainment market dominated by the NFL and NBA.
The MLS has now taken the major step break Apple’s exclusivity and allow subscribers of traditional pay-TV providers Comcast and DirecTV and mobile carrier T-Mobile to gain access to MLS League Pass – the package that delivers every MLS match in the season. This will open up a much larger potential subscriber base.
MLS and Apple are also adding a new dedicated Sunday slot for a featured game of the week – to date scheduling has been focused on Saturdays and Wednesdays.
The arrival of Lionel Messi at Inter Miami provided a massive boost to the league, but even he can’t sustain the momentum of the initial bubble growth.
Internationally the MLS League Pass on Apple has failed to attract significant interest with Apple now reportedly looking to on-sell those rights to other channels who have a larger football rights footprint and subscribers eager for more football content.
For the MLS it is a sobering realisation that it is not a driver of paid subscribers as a standalone subscription product in international markets, but it can add value to a broadcaster or streamer within a bouquet of sports rights.
There is eight years left to run on the Apple deal, and neither Apple or the MLS are looking to pull out of the core parts of the deal in the US. But they are both looking to see how they can get more out it.
Internationally the rights are already being shopped to broadcasters who can do more with the package than Apple have realised that for all its size and scale it can’t quite deliver at a price point that excites football fans to make the MLS part of their regular diet.
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