Checking in on MLS’s Apple TV Deal…

[ZooCougar]

Apple TV's MLS gamble backfires: Record-low final viewership

Apple TV's MLS viewership plummeted for the 2024 MLS Cup final featuring LA Galaxy vs New York Red Bulls in a worrying sign for the league.

worldsoccertalk.com

“Reporter John Ourand, a two-decade veteran of Sports Business Journal and the leading sports TV industry insider in the United States, suggests that Apple TV’s MLS viewership for the 2024 final was as low as 65,000 viewers on MLS Season Pass.”

 

[businesslawyer]

Apple TV's MLS gamble backfires: Record-low final viewership

Apple TV's MLS viewership plummeted for the 2024 MLS Cup final featuring LA Galaxy vs New York Red Bulls in a worrying sign for the league.

worldsoccertalk.com

“Reporter John Ourand, a two-decade veteran of Sports Business Journal and the leading sports TV industry insider in the United States, suggests that Apple TV’s MLS viewership for the 2024 final was as low as 65,000 viewers on MLS Season Pass.”

I watched the Metrostars/Red Bulls for decades. Not religously, but often over the summer months when only baseball shared the stage. I have not watched a minute of an MLS game since they went behind the pay wall. I can’t be alone. I understand they get more money from this deal, and that in some cases they are using the money to bring in more foreign talent, but it’s hard to believe that over the long term shrinking the size of your audience is ever a good strategy.

 

[ZooCougar]

I watched the Metrostars/Red Bulls for decades. Not religously, but often over the summer months when only baseball shared the stage. I have not watched a minute of an MLS game since they went behind the pay wall. I can’t be alone. I understand they get more money from this deal, and that in some cases they are using the money to bring in more foreign talent, but it’s hard to believe that over the long term shrinking the size of your audience is ever a good strategy.

I can’t see how they withstand 10 years of it.

Also it’s like an ESPN+ deal. MLS pays for all production costs.

 

[Waquoit]

And most of the money goes to Messi. They barely outdrew the USL Championship.

 

[ZooCougar]

Wow

They traded money for a lack of exposure. They made Val Ackerman look smart. Quite an achievement.

For MLS, do the ratings matter if the checks still clear?

In the wake of a sharp decline in MLS Cup ratings, a look at the league's two-year-old media rights deal with Apple.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

 

[Waquoit]

No worries! A new savior!

Sources: Neymar in talks with three MLS teams over possible move

Talk about hitting "will drop pants for food" stage of your career.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

So the MLS is slowly evolving into the NASL, where over the hill international stars finish their careers with a payday to compete against less than quality opponents.

 

[pepband99]

Wow

They traded money for a lack of exposure. They made Val Ackerman look smart. Quite an achievement.

For MLS, do the ratings matter if the checks still clear?

In the wake of a sharp decline in MLS Cup ratings, a look at the league's two-year-old media rights deal with Apple.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

It's the anti-AAC. The AAC traded whoring themselves out to terrible timeslots, for exposure on "good" networks.

 

[Waquoit]

So the MLS is slowly evolving into the NASL, where over the hill international stars finish their careers with a payday to compete against less than quality opponents.

Don't you dare call them a "retirement" league.

 

[ZooCougar]

So the MLS is slowly evolving into the NASL, where over the hill international stars finish their careers with a payday to compete against less than quality opponents.

MLS has always been this.

 

[ZooCougar]

It's the anti-AAC. The AAC traded whoring themselves out to terrible timeslots, for exposure on "good" networks.

Instead of terrible time slots they traded a little bit larger deal to be behind two pay walls.

And also like the AAC, MLS pays 100% of the production costs on Apple. So that takes chunk out of their Apple money. To make matters worse a large portion of their new subscribers $$ goes to Lionel Messi.