I've been absolutely immersed in all of the preseason content on season pass for the last 2 minutes.
MLS and Apple Broadcasting Deal
- Thread starter Fantazma
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I understand the league had a lot of grand plans for what it was going to do with this service, but it blows my mind that in Year 2, they haven't even come close to what they claimed they wanted to do.
Couldn’t get myself to do it last season but bit the bullet and subscribed so will probably soon be bitching about the quality of all this with the rest of you lol . Checked to make sure I have it running on the tv and not just laptop . Saturdays can get busy for me think I need to watch 20 games live to make it feel worth it at 5 a pop so hoping I can manage that .
Your story is a classic case of how out over its skis MLS is with this package. If you, a diehard enough fan that you post on a message board, weren't willing to pay for the package for a year, what hope is there for casual fans? This league just isn't big enough or popular enough in this country to be streaming only. When Messi leaves in two years and the circus packs up, the league's worldwide subscribers will leave with him. What's their plan for when that happens?
The T-Mobile thing was a talking point earlier this week, but it's so silly of MLS to not offer it anymore. They need eyeballs on their product. They need people to watch it, become a fan, and not be willing to live without it. By only having one free year for T-Mobile subscribers, many of those casual fans won't return. They have no plan for the post-Messi era other than try to recruit another big star. They truly have no long-term plan for the growth of this league in America.
There is no “another big star”. No one else comes close. Ronaldo wouldn’t have had the same effect. Zlatan didn’t have it. Mbappe wouldn’t. Haaland wouldn’t. No one is on his level.
I'm in that category too. I had it through T-Mobile last year but ended up watching maybe one game a month live in any depth, plus highlights of the rest. The kids own the TV on Saturday nights and this is almost never what they most want to watch. Doesn't help that despite going to a few matches every year, I'm fairly confident they can't name anyone on the current roster. They'd watch Messi though...
Totally agree. I myself didn't go for the package last year, mostly because I thought it was thrown together too quickly and there was no way to assess the value. (I went for it this year, though.)
Before all this started, my hope was for NBC to go all-in on the Beautiful Game and snap up the MLS broadcast rights, and then rebrand NBC Sports Network as NBC Soccer Network. That would have given them year-round live games and plenty of content to fill the pipeline. Not to mention they would have had the most popular professional league in the world and the top tier of the domestic game.
The website interface they had for the Premier League was excellent, too. For reasons passing understanding, they ditched it when they moved everything to Peacock, but it was great.
I have no idea if the numbers would have worked out, or even what the math is on their current deal, and of course I'm being a little selfish too. But considering NBCUniversal already had Telemundo under the corporate umbrella, it looked like a no-brainer to me, at least conceptually.
I subscribed last year and this year cause I want to watch the games. I can't get to home games as much as I could in the past, but I also like watching how we play instead of simply catching highlights.
I really don't think the cost is a barrier though. It's less than $3 a game not counting playoffs and leagues cup. It really just comes down to whether or not you are a fan of MLS or at least, a fan enough of one of the MLS teams. That is something messi has helped to improve. The hope is that a percentage of the folks who came on to watch MLS because of messi will stay after messi leaves. It's MLS's job to produce a product that can retain as high a percentage as possible.
I don't think eliminating tmobile freebies is going to hurt that. After one year, if you're interested enough in actually watching games, you'll subscribe. otherwise you won't. giving out free subscriptions won't in and of itself change that "non-subscriber" into a subscriber post messi. I can say this with confidence as someone who constantly uses free trials to watch streams but never pay for a subscription. I simply don't care enough and i don't have to since I can watch things with free trials.
I really don't think the cost is a barrier though. It's less than $3 a game not counting playoffs and leagues cup. It really just comes down to whether or not you are a fan of MLS or at least, a fan enough of one of the MLS teams. That is something messi has helped to improve. The hope is that a percentage of the folks who came on to watch MLS because of messi will stay after messi leaves. It's MLS's job to produce a product that can retain as high a percentage as possible.
I don't think eliminating tmobile freebies is going to hurt that. After one year, if you're interested enough in actually watching games, you'll subscribe. otherwise you won't. giving out free subscriptions won't in and of itself change that "non-subscriber" into a subscriber post messi. I can say this with confidence as someone who constantly uses free trials to watch streams but never pay for a subscription. I simply don't care enough and i don't have to since I can watch things with free trials.
just happened to see the 2021 review show that recapped our championship season on my youtube feed and got me thinkin ... did MLS get rid of the weekly "review show" with british commentators?
I always enjoyed that vs digging through all the separate highlight videos and thought it was a well produced show to review the week's action.
looked on MLS season pass and didn't find anything comparable. i don't want to hear the chatter from so called pundits I don't enjoy listening from. I just want to see the highlights and enjoy some enhanced commentary. anybody know if the "review show" still exists or something similar on apple TV?
edit: found it. had to google it. browsing to find it on apple TV wasn't very obvious. also doesn't seem to be updated for 2024... sigh. for a company that supposedly prides itself on design and usability, apple TV+/mls season pass interface is atrocious.
I always enjoyed that vs digging through all the separate highlight videos and thought it was a well produced show to review the week's action.
looked on MLS season pass and didn't find anything comparable. i don't want to hear the chatter from so called pundits I don't enjoy listening from. I just want to see the highlights and enjoy some enhanced commentary. anybody know if the "review show" still exists or something similar on apple TV?
edit: found it. had to google it. browsing to find it on apple TV wasn't very obvious. also doesn't seem to be updated for 2024... sigh. for a company that supposedly prides itself on design and usability, apple TV+/mls season pass interface is atrocious.
MLS Season Pass is on sale for $69 without appleTV+ subscription or $59 with appleTV+ subscription.
Quarter of the season done so make sense for a price cut. But includes all of the Leagues Cup still.
So it deserves an even bigger price cut.
Great news. The technology for the U.S. Open Cup has been a little sketchy up to now, but from the quarterfinals on, it will all be on MLS Season Pass.
First MLS tries to destroy the US Open Cup, now it agrees to televise it. Would these clowns pick a lane and stick with it?
it's only because 5 of the remaining 8 are MLS teams so it's more eyes on MLS teams. if MLS teams somehow didn't make it this far, they wouldn't broadcast it.
Apple TV app adds new 'Catch Up' feature for live streaming sports in MLS Season Pass - 9to5Mac
Apple today announced a new ‘Catch Up’ feature as part of MLS Season Pass. When joining a live stream for...
9to5mac.com
YoutubeTV has a similar feature for sporting events. I have mostly used it in college and pro football. The problem is the key plays are chosen by an algorithm or AI. They mostly choose well, but not always. Like it might show a team earn an unremarkable first down in their own half of the field but not show how that drive ended. Or it will show a stop on third down inside the red zone but not show if they tried for a field goal or went for it. These fails are not the norm but not super rare either. It usually includes all scoring plays but not perfect even on that.
I would expect it does even worse with soccer. It's harder to figure out when a "play" begins or ends. I would think it's very hard to tell if a shot was dangerous or not.
Still, having the option is better than not having it.
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