Should MLS & Apple revisit their TV deal?

Should MLS & Apple revisit their TV deal?

Here’s Brody Brazil. Anytime you want to call it in and let it fly, the phone lines are always open. You know the number. 8334. Brody, I literally listen to every single message you leave and then I get to play back and respond to the very best ones. Hi Brody, this is Dominic calling from Orange County. I wanted to ask uh your opinion on the Apple TV deal with Major League Soccer. uh Major League Soccer recently uh put the Apple TV deal and ended all RSN regional sports networks. Right. So, I wanted to ask, do you believe that we should go back to RSN’s or should we keep the Apple TV deal or should Major League Soccer go to the NFL model? Thank you, Dominic from the OC. I really do appreciate the call. And it’s interesting because when MLS did this deal with Apple four or five years ago, we’ll get into the details in just a second. My instant thought was, “Wow, this is forward thinking. This is ahead of the curve.” The problem is for where MLS is at. Not necessarily Apple TV, but where MLS is at, it might be too far ahead of their curve. And we’re only realizing this as it plays out. Look, the changing landscape of sports and media and broadcast rights, it has evolved so much in recent times that there are going to be some missteps. And I don’t want to say mistakes because these were all decisions made with the best intentions. But as we let them play out, we’re realizing some things that I I’m pretty sure other leagues and teams are paying attention to so that maybe they don’t find themselves in this situation of question. The future of MLS on television or shall we say streaming like Apple isn’t even halfway into this 10-year global rights deal from 2022 or 23 to 32. A 10season deal that ends. It expires in 2032. So, we’re again not even at the halfway point of this. And we’ve already got some questions like, are ratings okay enough? Is MLS getting what they want out of this? It’s a big deal. The rights here are estimated to be at $2.5 billion. We don’t know what Apple paid MLS to broadcast exclusively all the matches. Now there are some matches I want to say still 20 to 25 that are on FS1 or other bits and pieces in other places but wholesale and large scale you can literally find MLS only in one place that’s on Apple TV. The problem for me here in in understanding and realizing this again I had a different thought about this in 22 or 23 when it was announced versus right now in 25 as we’ve seen it for a couple years. The evolution of my thought is this. MLS is still very much a growing product in the United States. Forget globally, I’m talking about here in the United States. And you’re taking something that was still growing. And look, the league is expanding in its amount of teams, but also growing with an audience and interest and traditions. And a lot of these teams haven’t been around for a very, very long time, like multiple decades. Some have a more storied history obviously than others. But you’re you’re taking all of this this newness and now you’re putting it behind a payw wall. And that’s where you run into trouble because I think the easiest way to describe this is that soccer fans are able to find their MLS team. They’ve bought into the package. They know the deal. I forget the exact price point, but they see it. They understand it. It’s worth it. It’s not an accessibility thing here. Like if you’ve got a phone, not even an Apple phone, you can get MLS games and matches via the Apple app on on other platforms. But again, it’s not a it’s not a situation if people can’t get to it because they don’t have access. It’s that they’re not finding it. So soccer fans can find their team. They’ve got the routine. They’ve got the method down. The problem is casual fans, they’re not finding this because number one, it’s a huge barrier of entry to cost and also they don’t maybe even know necessarily where to find it or they’re in some other place flipping channels like D I’m going to watch this and that and I don’t I don’t see MLS soccer on so to me does it even exist? That’s kind of the challenge here. You are probably seeing a lot of success from MLS fans who say, “I love this product and this and I’m sure Apple is doing a tremendous job with production and presentation and delivery.” That’s not it at all. There’s no lag on the games, no breakup of the stream. All that like all that stuff is great. The the product is great. It’s just finding it for the casual fan isn’t maybe happening. And MLS, if it wants to continue to grow, if it wants to continue to expand, it needs more eyeballs, more attention, more people watching. Problem is, Apple and MLS are tied into this deal, which Apple’s paying for exclusivity. So MLS can’t say, “Well, how about we break off and throw like a 100 matches this year on free television?” Apple’s like, “Well, uh, what are we paying for here? We produce these games for us. You want to give it away? You can’t just give it away. Give it away. Give it away. Now, you can’t do that. So, how do you how do you settle this deal out to make it a little bit more lucrative for MLS to grow? Now, I’m going to I’m going to throw this out there. This is crazy and impossible, but you know, this is a way around all of it. Well, not really all of it, but what if you were to put a large amount of matches right here on YouTube? Have you seen the PWHL, the professional women’s hockey league, which is one of a number of leagues of women’s hockey that has started up now. I think this one’s going to thrive and do well. Some of the other ones they started and they had to stop for various reasons, but one of the biggest reasons that they’re doing well is because of exposure. They literally put all if not almost all of their hockey games free on YouTube. Now again, MLS is trying to make money here. They’ve got the exclusivity with Apple TV. I’m saying if there is a way to go free, you don’t even need to go to a regional sports network, which by the way, I don’t know the landscape of that business over the next 10 years. Don’t know how that’s going. Local television stations will probably always exist in some shape or form, but I don’t know if that’s the most enticing way. Literally, how you’re watching me right now on YouTube, how many of us are watching more YouTube than any other platform right now? even more than Netflix or Hulu or um anything else that exists any other streaming platform. So the experiment for me like the move for me if if MLS was going to open the door and say well we need to do exposure again I don’t know how they work the YouTube part out financially with Apple I don’t know how that goes. I’m just saying if you want to test something, if you really want to put some gas on this fire and and try and get an audience, you put those same high quality, high production value presentation of your MLS matches, you put it right here on YouTube, you make it for free. Watch how fast the views go up. But again, it’s a complicated money situation. And there are still what uh seven years left, six, seven seasons left of of MLS on Apple TV. So, can they pivot? Can they figure something out? Um, I don’t know that I’ve provided a solution. Hopefully, I’ve at least identified the problem and given you some things to think about. Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Also, thumbs up. While you’re down there, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. I would love to see you back here next time.

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