MLS and Apple Broadcasting Deal

[ZYanksRule]

That's what you get when you don't have recurring broadcast teams following a single team. Most of these neutral, national broadcasters have seemed dull and or just biased towards one team. It's so disappointing. I understand it's more money, but it would be such a better product for fans to be able to listen to the broadcasters they want for their games each time.

The broadcasts have been incredibly disappointing. Last night for our game, they showed Nick and graphic said this was Cushing's first year with NYCFC, then a few minutes later the announcers Fotis Bazakos was the ref in 2021 MLS Cup. That's two glaring mistakes within the first five minutes. It's just not good enough.

Aside from Taylor Twellman, I don't care what any of their analysts think. They're all cookie cutter and boring. None of them say anything. Ian Joy is a great analyst because he was always willing to say something. These guys just add nothing to the broadcast. YES had its faults, but I would gladly take YES over what we have to listen to every week.

 

[mgarbowski]

I don't know why they're so boring. Other sports and networks manage to have non-local broadcasters do national games and not be uniformly bland. The best announcers inevitably get people annoyed, like Twellman or Lalas. They need more of that.
A theory, and I'm not sure if I believe it, could be that because a good number of the announcers were formerly associated with specific teams, they collectively decided (or were instructed) to play everything straight and they end up being too reserved, even the ones who were always neutrals. NYCFC fans on Twitter were complaining about Brian Dunseth Sunday morning because he did RSL games in the before times and was biased. I had stayed up and watched the game (arguably a mistake) and had no idea he had any RSL affiliation. Which tells me (1) if you go looking for bias against you, you will find it, (2) being bland and straight down the middle is no defense against confirmation bias whining, and (3) the announcers might as well be themselves because they're going to get bias complaints no matter what. I didn't think the announcers for our game this week added anything to it, but they weren't objectively favoring RSL. That might have been more interesting.

Also, I didn't think the call of Zelarayan's bomb was terrible. It wasn't all time great or but it was good.

 

[CCMore]

I don't know why they're so boring. Other sports and networks manage to have non-local broadcasters do national games and not be uniformly bland. The best announcers inevitably get people annoyed, like Twellman or Lalas. They need more of that.
A theory, and I'm not sure if I believe it, could be that because a good number of the announcers were formerly associated with specific teams, they collectively decided (or were instructed) to play everything straight and they end up being too reserved, even the ones who were always neutrals. NYCFC fans on Twitter were complaining about Brian Dunseth Sunday morning because he did RSL games in the before times and was biased. I had stayed up and watched the game (arguably a mistake) and had no idea he had any RSL affiliation. Which tells me (1) if you go looking for bias against you, you will find it, (2) being bland and straight down the middle is no defense against confirmation bias whining, and (3) the announcers might as well be themselves because they're going to get bias complaints no matter what. I didn't think the announcers for our game this week added anything to it, but they weren't objectively favoring RSL. That might have been more interesting.

Also, I didn't think the call of Zelarayan's bomb was terrible. It wasn't all time great or but it was good.

I’m a little biased because I’ve been listening to Brian “Dunny” Dunseth the past couple years. But I think he called a really good game. He added some RSL history by talking about Rimando and Beckerman a bit and the goal keeper situation. But also talked about CFG, Luis Barraza, and Taty just as much. So literally what both fan bases are looking for, a smidge of information about both sides. It’s what an announcer can do when calling an unbiased game.

 

[SoupInNYC]

The broadcasts have been incredibly disappointing. Last night for our game, they showed Nick and graphic said this was Cushing's first year with NYCFC, then a few minutes later the announcers Fotis Bazakos was the ref in 2021 MLS Cup. That's two glaring mistakes within the first five minutes. It's just not good enough.

To be fair, they said that Fotis was the 4th official for the 2021 MLS Cup and that does seem to be accurate

 

[SoupInNYC]

That's what you get when you don't have recurring broadcast teams following a single team. Most of these neutral, national broadcasters have seemed dull and or just biased towards one team. It's so disappointing. I understand it's more money, but it would be such a better product for fans to be able to listen to the broadcasters they want for their games each time.

I don't think that's necessarily it. None of the NFL announcers follow a single team. We've always had national broadcasts on ESPN, FS1, Telemundo that have multiple broadcast crews that don't follow one team either.

 

[ZYanksRule]

To be fair, they said that Fotis was the 4th official for the 2021 MLS Cup and that does seem to be accurate

Oh, my mistake then. Clearly in the fifth minute I was already half tuning them out and missed that part.

 

[ZYanksRule]

I don't think that's necessarily it. None of the NFL announcers follow a single team. We've always had national broadcasts on ESPN, FS1, Telemundo that have multiple broadcast crews that don't follow one team either.

Right -- I've always found Taylor Twellman and Stu Strong interesting on ESPN and FOX. They do their research, do their prep, know what they need to know, and are ready to broadcast the team they're covering. I think these guys on Apple are all former players with limited experience in TV who have only a superficial knowledge of NYCFC, so they all go through the same talking points every game. Taty, striker, stadium. That's all they talk about the entire game because it's all they know.

They just need to do more prep. Their lack of preparation is glaring, especially for people like us who can't be fooled. Maybe for the casual fan it's enough, but they are not serving the diehards.

 

[mgarbowski]

MLS nearing Apple's subscription threshold to share revenue, per report

According to a new report, MLS and Apple are about to close in on an important marker on the road to Season Pass success.

awfulannouncing.com

This article is based on a paywalled Seattle Times article by Jayda Evans which it quotes from as follows:

“MLS sources confirmed the league is nearing Apple’s required subscription threshold that kick-starts an agreement for the company to share subscription revenue with MLS,” wrote Evans. “The league’s players, per terms of the new CBA, would also receive 12.5% of the increase in media revenue this year if the amount exceeds $100 million of the 2022 media compensation, which was about $65 million when excluding fees paid to the USMNT.”

I did not know there was such a threshold clause.

 

[Shwafta]

MLS nearing Apple's subscription threshold to share revenue, per report

According to a new report, MLS and Apple are about to close in on an important marker on the road to Season Pass success.

awfulannouncing.com

This article is based on a paywalled Seattle Times article by Jayda Evans which it quotes from as follows:

“MLS sources confirmed the league is nearing Apple’s required subscription threshold that kick-starts an agreement for the company to share subscription revenue with MLS,” wrote Evans. “The league’s players, per terms of the new CBA, would also receive 12.5% of the increase in media revenue this year if the amount exceeds $100 million of the 2022 media compensation, which was about $65 million when excluding fees paid to the USMNT.”

I did not know there was such a threshold clause.

Willing to bet a lot of this happened recently with the Messi news. If this is the case then this is good news. Hopefully it keeps going up.

 

[Antidote P. Smiley]

the other thing I miss about ‘21 after watching the all goals reel is Joe and Ian.
I have found the Apple broadcasts are exceptional at being bland. Hearing Joe and Ian is like enjoying a unique local craft beer as opposed to Bud or Bud Light.

 

[LionNYC]

the other thing I miss about ‘21 after watching the all goals reel is Joe and Ian.
I have found the Apple broadcasts are exceptional at being bland. Hearing Joe and Ian is like enjoying a unique local craft beer as opposed to Bud or Bud Light.

MLS Season Pass Announcers have been Natural Light without any alcohol.

 

[413Blue]

It's been challenging to watch MLS this season. Everything but the picture quality (if you can avoid the frequent streaming issues) and the consistent "channel" has been pretty awful.
Match announcers, bad to the bone, drier than a triscuit and match prep has been generally poor. MLS 360, replace the entire crew, they are awful, except for Wiebe. It also amazes just how awful Apple is with user interface and third party apps. Laughably bad.
And we suck, which amplifies all these negatives.

 

[Shwafta]

It's been challenging to watch MLS this season. Everything but the picture quality (if you can avoid the frequent streaming issues) and the consistent "channel" has been pretty awful.
Match announcers, bad to the bone, drier than a triscuit and match prep has been generally poor. MLS 360, replace the entire crew, they are awful, except for Wiebe. It also amazes just how awful Apple is with user interface and third party apps. Laughably bad.
And we suck, which amplifies all these negatives.

Also whoever decided that a half black screen when you slightly move your mouse is a good idea....

And also that to find the NYCFC game that just ended like 39 mins ago, you have to navigate to the team page and scroll to games which passes the highlights section which inevitably spoils the game. Unless I'm missing another way

 

[Gotham Gator]

MLS nearing Apple's subscription threshold to share revenue, per report

According to a new report, MLS and Apple are about to close in on an important marker on the road to Season Pass success.

awfulannouncing.com

This article is based on a paywalled Seattle Times article by Jayda Evans which it quotes from as follows:

“MLS sources confirmed the league is nearing Apple’s required subscription threshold that kick-starts an agreement for the company to share subscription revenue with MLS,” wrote Evans. “The league’s players, per terms of the new CBA, would also receive 12.5% of the increase in media revenue this year if the amount exceeds $100 million of the 2022 media compensation, which was about $65 million when excluding fees paid to the USMNT.”

I did not know there was such a threshold clause.

That's interesting, and great. Yes, there is a threshold for revenue sharing, although I don't think the amount has ever been revealed.

It's probably to allow Apple to recoup some or all of its up front payments before MLS gets to share the pie.

 

[moogoo]

Also whoever decided that a half black screen when you slightly move your mouse is a good idea....

And also that to find the NYCFC game that just ended like 39 mins ago, you have to navigate to the team page and scroll to games which passes the highlights section which inevitably spoils the game. Unless I'm missing another way

it's probably too late to do any major changes, but I hope they take the off season and incorporate all the changes and do all the fixes that are driving people nuts. I would also like to see clubs take more advantage of the platform to showcase their digital media productions so people are more inclined to going there for all videos by their team (though this probably won't happen).

would be a dream if they hired different announcers and if there was a way they could be rated by viewers but that's also not gonna happen too. but they can for sure change the format of MLS360 and small things like layout of the page, team page, how games show up in the feed, and letting non-apple people choose their favorite teams they want to follow.

 

[moogoo]

anybody experience this ? curious if it's a common bug.

sometimes i tune in late and instead of "WATCHING LIVE", I select "WATCH FROM START". but when it loads, it takes me to the live feed instead of starting at the beginning...

really annoying when i've caught our games late and see the score pop up on the screen.

 

[FootyLovin]

anybody experience this ? curious if it's a common bug.

sometimes i tune in late and instead of "WATCHING LIVE", I select "WATCH FROM START". but when it loads, it takes me to the live feed instead of starting at the beginning...

really annoying when i've caught our games late and see the score pop up on the screen.

Nope. Lots of spoilers getting to the feed, but never had that particular problem.

 

[Shwafta]

Nope. Lots of spoilers getting to the feed, but never had that particular problem.

It's SO ANNOYING.
I have to scroll down to eastern conference (since if it's a live game but almost done being live then it usually doesn't show up in the live game list as far as I can tell...) and then on the team and then on the game. And then once you're in the game screen, they put "HIGHLIGHTS" right below, so before you even have a chance to click into the game quickly you see "Highlights: Philly Goal" and that's the only highlight on display. Great. Wonderful.

 

[moogoo]

Nope. Lots of spoilers getting to the feed, but never had that particular problem.

i mean while the game is still going on. not after it's over and you're looking for the replay.

yes, i agree the goal spoilers at the top with the replay all the way at the bottom is quite annoying.

 

[Gotham Gator]

i mean while the game is still going on. not after it's over and you're looking for the replay.

yes, i agree the goal spoilers at the top with the replay all the way at the bottom is quite annoying.

The issue for me when looking for the replay is that it is right next to a series of highlights of goals in our games. So, I can see if we have scored and if so, how much.