MLS drops ‘Season Pass’ paywall, with all games available on Apple TV | MLS
Apple TV subscribers will be able to watch all Major League Soccer matches without an additional subscription starting next year.
During the first three years of MLS’s $2.5 billion deal with Apple, a standalone Season Pass subscription was required to access all matches. During this season, more than 200 games were broadcast simultaneously on MLS Season Pass and Apple TV, including the league’s “Sunday Night Soccer” package. The abandonment of the separate subscription was announced Thursday at an owners’ meeting.
Apple has made its Friday night Major League Baseball doubleheaders available to all subscribers since launching in 2022. It recently secured the U.S. rights to Formula 1 for five years, which will also be available starting next season.
Making MLS games more accessible also comes as the United States hosts the World Cup next year and the league moves to a late summer to spring schedule matching the European model in 2027. The current season runs from late February to early December.
MLS Deputy Commissioner Gary Stevenson said Apple contacted MLS earlier this year about the possibility of moving all of its matches to Apple TV.
“We had been testing ‘Sunday Night Soccer’ on Apple TV and had a really good response. Then we told them about the potential schedule change and they thought it made sense. So it all seemed like a perfect evolution from what we started with and we think fans are going to find the experience and value significantly better,” Stevenson said.
MLS season ticket holders will receive Apple TV subscriptions after previously receiving the MLS Season Pass.
MLS said it recorded an average of 3.7 million live match gross viewers per week across streaming and linear platforms for its 15 weekly matches, an increase of 29% from 2024.
after newsletter promotion
Apple owns the global rights to MLS, which benefited them in South America after Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami in 2023. The league also saw an influx of Asian viewers after Son Heung-min started playing for LAFC in August. Messi and Son have had the two best jersey sales in the league this season.
Both Messi and Son’s clubs qualified for the league quarter-finals. LAFC travels to Vancouver on November 22 while Inter Miami travels to Cincinnati on November 23.
