Is MLS Season Pass a peek at future of sports broadcasting?

When New York Red Bulls and NYCFC fans go to watch their respective teams this year, the viewing experience will look significantly different. Wednesday marked the launch of MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, the one-stop shop (and only place to watch) all Major League Soccer games for the next 10 years, and possibly gave a glimpse into the future of what sports broadcasting could look like going forward.

The 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple makes the MLS the first major professional sports league in the United States to push all of its content — both local and national — exclusively on a streaming platform. The league had told its clubs not to sign any local TV deals beyond the 2022 season back in 2019 and now soccer fans in New York will no longer see the Red Bulls on MSG Network and NYCFC on YES.

The new service will cost MLS fans $14.99 per month or $99 for the year, with Apple TV+ subscribers receiving a bit of a discounted rate. Season ticket holders will be receiving a subscription to the service which would account for 300-400,000 subscribers, according to The Athletic.

The new deal also allows soccer fans to view every MLS game, Leagues Cup matches, MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT games without any blackout restrictions. And six MLS games per week will be shown for free on the Apple TV app as well.

It should go without saying that every sports league will be watching how this plays out for the MLS and Apple. Other leagues have dipped their toes in the water, for instance, MLB had moved certain games exclusively to Apple TV and Peacock which forced viewers to sign up for accounts on those platforms, at cost, to see those games.

The NFL has moved its Thursday Night Football broadcast to Amazon Prime and NFL Sunday Ticket is headed to YouTube TV next season, which is still expected to have blackout restrictions.

MLS will still have a handful of games on linear TV broadcast partners Fox and FS1 during the regular season and during the playoffs, but the change speaks to the larger issue of how fans will be viewing their favorite teams in the near future. Regional sports networks haven’t been as lucrative as they once were and cord-cutting has impacted the bottom line.

There’s no better example at the moment than the looming bankruptcy of Bally Sports, which holds the local TV rights for 16 NBA, 14 MLB and 12 NHL teams.

The connections between some of the local teams and their regional broadcast partners is a bit different with the Mets closely aligned with SNY, the Yankees still have an ownership stake in YES Network and the Knicks and Rangers have understandably close ties with MSG Networks.

Even the Islanders boast a TV contract with MSG that is quite lucrative for the team.

MLS’ new deal with Apple is a more profitable one than the ones that teams had in their local market and the league does boast a much younger fan demographic that would likely be more receptive to the new TV setup. But if this all goes well and Apple and the MLS see a good return on investment it will surely raise interest among the other major sports.

But will it work out the way the two sides hope? Only time will tell.