CASE 016: MLS BEHIND THE PAYWALL BY JOHN BANEY
CASE 016: MLS BEHIND THE PAYWALL
A few weeks ago, I was met again by a frustratingly familiar problem. My beloved New York City Football Club was set to play Sporting Kansas City on a Saturday Night at 8:30, and some friends and I thought it’d be fun to catch the game at a local bar.
From pub to pub, we handed IDs to bouncers, pushed awkwardly to the front of lines, and sheepishly asked the bartenders if they could switch one of the TVs to the NYCFC game. Four bars later, though, we were still striking out.
Even with the Yankees and Mets playing, and with an (apparently) big UFC fight on that night, our main hurdle wasn’t the willingness of these bars to sacrifice a TV to a soccer game they knew little about. Rather, they just didn’t have the channel.
These days, all MLS matches are streamed on MLS Season Pass, a premium package available for purchase for a $99 annual subscription charge through Apple TV+. Try explaining that to a bartender who’s already faking their way through the mixology of an espresso martini, taking orders from the local drunk at the end of the bar, and trying their best to hear you over Benson Boone’s new nonsense blasting over the speakers. Honestly, it felt like a big ask every single time.
With each passing bar, we grew less and less surprised that these places didn’t have MLS Season Pass. Why would they? From the Yankees to the Mets, the Giants to the Jets, and the Knicks to the Nets, these bars already have all the games that draw the biggest crowds through their existing cable packages. The thought of paying $12 a month for an MLS-specific subscription service probably never crossed their minds.
Which begs the question: Is it really in the best interest of a growing league to put its product behind a paywall? On the surface, that’s an obvious “no”. But if Apple slapped you in the face with $2.5 billion, I’m pretty sure you would’ve made the same decision MLS Commissioner Don Garber made back in 2022.
The 10-year deal will run until 2032, with Apple paying $250 million annually over that period for exclusive streaming rights. To put those figures into perspective, MLS’s previous deal, a joint venture from ESPN and FOX Sports, paid the league $90m annually, meaning the league increased its annual broadcasting income by over 2.7x with one stroke of Garber’s pen.
Considering the league is in its era of financial growth as much as it is its on-field growth, it was the sort of offer MLS couldn’t refuse.
Beyond the financial boost, there are plenty of perks for MLS fans to enjoy through Apple’s unique approach to league coverage. Gone are the days of fragmented viewing landscapes and blackout restrictions - if you have MLS Season Pass, you will always be able to watch the game, which (somehow) wasn’t the case under the previous broadcast partnerships. It’s also a global deal, meaning anyone worldwide can subscribe and get the same access to content, which is something rarely seen in broadcasting agreements for domestic leagues, and something very important if you happen to employ Lionel Messi.
Plus, in-house content like MLS 360 and MLS Wrap-Up gives fans more dedicated studio coverage than ever before. Each MLS club is even provided a space to publish its own unique content, like player profiles, clips from training, behind-the-scenes access, you name it.
Existing season ticket holders for any of the league’s 30 clubs also receive MLS Season Pass for free, putting the icing on the cake of an exceptional product and viewing experience for the existing MLS fan.
The keywordkey word there, however, is existing. For the vast majority of soccer fans in the country that aren’t yet fans of MLS, Apple’s gatekeeping of its product has proved quite a barrier.
“I’d watch, but I don’t have Apple TV”, is something I’ve heard constantly from friends I’m actively recruiting to watch MLS, and from my corporate co-workers, who I suspect are avoiding watching Severance as they know it’d hit way too close to home.
For MLS, that’s a big problem. Realistically, who’s going to pay $100 to watch a league they’re not already a fan of? If I wasn’t a fan of MLS when they made the jump from cable to Apple, I’m not sure I would’ve paid 100 bucks for it. Would I pay $100 to see a band I’ve never listened to? No. What about $100 at a fancy restaurant for a dish I’ve never tried before? No shot. Did I drop $100 on drinks at all these bars we popped into? Maybe. But that’s different … right?
MLS appears to understand this issue to a degree, putting 34 matches up annually for traditional linear broadcasting on FOX and FS1, good for about one per MLS matchweek. And, Sunday Night Soccer, the league’s new primetime weekly fixture, airs for free if you sign in with an Apple ID - no Season Pass subscription required. Big playoff matches and MLS Cup are also found in front of the paywall. But is that really enough?
It feels like MLS and Apple are putting a lot of faith in casual fans stumbling upon a select free game and getting wooed into a $100 recurring purchase by the slick counter-attacking football of Eric Ramsey’s Minnesota United. While that seems perfectly reasonable to me (IYKYK), it feels unrealistic for the masses.
Ultimately, at our 5th bar of the evening, some bartender named Finn signed into his own Apple TV+ account and purchased MLS Season Pass for himself and the bar, tucking us away at a small corner TV to watch NYCFC drop two points late on the road. It was an incredible gesture that shouldn’t have needed to happen in the first place, but one that’ll keep me coming back to good ol’ Dylan Murphy’s until I pay off that subscription fee through future Guinnesses.
But, I can’t help but wonder if even this will be enough for someone like Finn to watch MLS. Will he, on a slow night, flip on that corner TV and stumble upon a Columbus Crew game, launching a years-long interest in Wilfried Nancy’s ability to squeeze double-digit goal tallies out of guys like Jacen Russell-Rowe? Or, will he come across this mysterious recurring charge on his bank statement years later, and cancel without the faintest of memories of subscribing in the first place?
Much like the potential growth of MLS through this Apple TV era, only time will tell.
CASE #016 BY JOHN BANEY
