The Future of Sports Streaming: How Apple's MLS Season Pass and Messi's Arrival are Changing the Game
It's no secret that Americans don't watch as much soccer as other countries, but with the arrival of global soccer superstar Lionel Messi to Major League Soccer (MLS), things are about to change. The Argentine football icon has joined Inter Miami FC in South Florida, and his presence is expected to bring a new wave of excitement to the league. To capitalize on this momentum, Apple has reportedly offered a significant deal to MLS, costing the company around $2.5 billion over 10 years.
As part of this deal, Apple will be streaming all MLS games through its platform, including exclusive matches featuring Messi and other top players. The MLS season pass subscription prices have been reduced to $13 per month, making it an attractive option for fans who want to stay up-to-date with the latest action. With Apple's financial muscle behind it, the league is expected to see a significant increase in viewership and revenue.
Messi's involvement is also being touted as a major selling point for Apple's streaming service. The soccer superstar is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, and his presence on MLS will undoubtedly bring a new level of excitement to the sport. According to ESPN, Messi will be getting a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV's MLS season pass, which adds another layer of motivation for fans to sign up.
But the impact of Messi's arrival goes beyond just entertainment value. The deal also reflects a larger trend in the sports streaming market, where traditional broadcast networks are struggling to compete with online platforms like Apple TV+. As consumers increasingly turn to streaming services for their sports fix, Apple is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend. With its vast resources and expertise in content creation, Apple is poised to become a major player in the sports streaming space.
However, not everyone is convinced that Apple's entry into the sports streaming market will be a success. Some advertisers are reportedly struggling to get data on their ad campaigns, as traditional metrics like Nielsen ratings are no longer relevant when it comes to online viewing habits. Additionally, some college football teams have been leaving the Pac-12 conference due to disagreements over broadcasting rights and revenue sharing.
In fact, Apple reportedly made an offer to be the streamer for Pac-12 games, but it was deemed underwhelming by athletic departments. The university of Washington's president cited concerns about national visibility for players as a major factor in the decision to leave the conference. While Apple may not have secured the rights to broadcast all Pac-12 games, the company is still expected to be a major player in the market.
Meanwhile, speculation continues to swirl around the possibility of Apple acquiring Disney. While this idea seems far-fetched on its face, Disney CEO Bob Iger has hinted that he is open to finding a strategic partner for ESPN. With Disney's vast resources and expertise in content creation, a partnership or acquisition could potentially give Apple a significant boost in terms of sports offerings.
In the world of college football, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) will need to make new broadcast and streaming deals for 2025. As the sport continues to evolve, it's likely that Apple will be a major player in the negotiations, seeking to secure exclusive rights to broadcast games on its platform.
The future of sports streaming is uncertain, but one thing is clear: Apple is poised to play a major role in shaping the market. With its vast resources and expertise in content creation, the company is well-positioned to capitalize on the trend towards online viewing habits. As the sports streaming landscape continues to evolve, it will be fascinating to see how Apple navigates the complex web of rights and revenue sharing that defines the industry.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere is some great drama right now on Apple TV plus but I'm not talking about a TV show the drama is around apple and sports all the spectacle intention is around Major League Soccer and college football and maybe ESPN there is a lot of Buzz about what's going on with how Apple's getting the streaming rights to various Sports content Apple's gamble on Major League Soccer seems to be paying off big time but not every sports team is a fan of having Apple at their games as one more perk to sell another streaming service to subscribers this week we're going to review Apple's big wins and losses for Sports Broadcast rights and all the latest rumors of what could be Apple's next play to make Apple TV plus a major sports streamer I'm Bridget Carey and this is one more thing streaming networks always have a hot show or two that pulls people in to subscribe but what's pulling folks into Apple TV plus there's been Ted lasso and Severance certainly apple is throwing a lot of cash right now at Foundation Forbes says the production looks like the most expensive show on TV but the thing that could be pulling in the biggest subscriber numbers for Apple right now isn't anything from Hollywood it's soccer last year Apple made a deal to be the only place you can stream all of the MLS games for the next 10 years it's a deal reportedly costing Apple 2.5 billion dollars but come on Bridget I can hear you now you're saying Americans don't really watch a lot of soccer right I would like to introduce in the world you know it just so happens that Global soccer Superstar Messi just joined Major League Soccer moving to South Florida to play on the inter-miami team he led Argentina to the World Cup title last year he's pretty much soccer royalty and if you need someone to get people interested in tuning into MLS games yeah this is the guy you get but of course to watch him you're gonna need Apple's MLS season pass subscription prices have been reduced to 13 a month or that's about forty dollars for the rest of the year a special price so you don't miss out on the messy apple as reported pitched in payment to entice Messi to move him to Miami ESPN says the Soccer Star is getting a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV's MLS season pass and it seems he's doing the job during Apple's last quarterly earnings call CEO Tim Cook said quote we are beating our expectations in terms of subscribers and the fact that Messi went to intermiami helped us out there a bit so we're very excited about it Apple TV plus isn't the only place you can see messy play Fox and Univision also have the rights to play a few games on broadcast TV Apple just has all the games it'll be interesting to see how this plays out for Apple's sports streaming and if it convinces other sports leagues then streaming live sports is the future especially at a time where we are seeing some Regional Sports Network struggle financially but it's not all sunshine and rainbows front office Sports reports that some advertisers are having a hard time knowing how well their ad campaigns are performing because it's hard to get data on streaming compared to the metrics of measuring with traditional Nielsen TV ratings the love of traditional broadcast also has put a bit of a damper on Apple's recent attempt to woo over some college football teams to the streaming side the Pac-12 college football conference has been through a lot of drama recently has there have been several schools leaving the conference now let's just say I am a tech news show so if you want more on that you should stream a sports news show but I can tell you one of the issues around schools leaving had to do with the inability of the Pac-12 to come up with a lucrative meteorite steal because schools get paid for each broadcast Apple reportedly made an offer to be the streamer for Pac-12 games but it wasn't enticing enough that athletic reported that the Apple deal was 23 million dollars per school and apparently underwhelming and yet the Athletics says Apple also had incentives tied to how many subscribers signed up for a Pac-12 package it's like the MLS season pass as ESPN reports the University of Washington's president said it would leave the Pac-12 not just because of money but that quote this was about National visibility for our players being on linear TV so they can be seen so they can have National exposure yeah the athletic reported there were no guarantees if Apple could simulcast certain games on broadcast TV like how Fox gets some soccer games so those conference games may not have gotten as many eyeballs ESPN has 75 million subscribers and it's hard to think that Apple could get that many people to buy a Pac-12 package even before the recent Exodus of schools speaking of broadcast let's turn our attention to ESPN every month or so it seems another article pops up online about how Apple may buy Disney and that is a bit wild to say that Apple would even want such a giant company with theme parks and all rather the latest speculation is that Disney might sell a piece of itself to Apple or just partner with apple to give it a boost of content Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC in July that he is open to finding a strategic partner for ESPN sure Disney could make a deal with anyone right but Disney and apple have a long history and we just saw Iger at Apple's WWDC saying Disney content is being made for the Apple Vision Pro headset and sports was teased to be included in that the demo videos went so far as to feature ESPN content on Vision Pro Apple doesn't need to buy a studio but perhaps it would really change the streaming game if it suddenly got a lot more content what we will have to see is how all of this influences the next big sports ball deals in all eyes are on basketball the National Basketball Association will need to make new broadcast and streaming deals for 2025. what happens now may determine what rights Apple will shoot for next has Sports influenced your streaming share your thoughts your wishes your desires for sports streaming in the comments below and I will catch you next week because like every week There's always one more thing to talk about with Applethere is some great drama right now on Apple TV plus but I'm not talking about a TV show the drama is around apple and sports all the spectacle intention is around Major League Soccer and college football and maybe ESPN there is a lot of Buzz about what's going on with how Apple's getting the streaming rights to various Sports content Apple's gamble on Major League Soccer seems to be paying off big time but not every sports team is a fan of having Apple at their games as one more perk to sell another streaming service to subscribers this week we're going to review Apple's big wins and losses for Sports Broadcast rights and all the latest rumors of what could be Apple's next play to make Apple TV plus a major sports streamer I'm Bridget Carey and this is one more thing streaming networks always have a hot show or two that pulls people in to subscribe but what's pulling folks into Apple TV plus there's been Ted lasso and Severance certainly apple is throwing a lot of cash right now at Foundation Forbes says the production looks like the most expensive show on TV but the thing that could be pulling in the biggest subscriber numbers for Apple right now isn't anything from Hollywood it's soccer last year Apple made a deal to be the only place you can stream all of the MLS games for the next 10 years it's a deal reportedly costing Apple 2.5 billion dollars but come on Bridget I can hear you now you're saying Americans don't really watch a lot of soccer right I would like to introduce in the world you know it just so happens that Global soccer Superstar Messi just joined Major League Soccer moving to South Florida to play on the inter-miami team he led Argentina to the World Cup title last year he's pretty much soccer royalty and if you need someone to get people interested in tuning into MLS games yeah this is the guy you get but of course to watch him you're gonna need Apple's MLS season pass subscription prices have been reduced to 13 a month or that's about forty dollars for the rest of the year a special price so you don't miss out on the messy apple as reported pitched in payment to entice Messi to move him to Miami ESPN says the Soccer Star is getting a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV's MLS season pass and it seems he's doing the job during Apple's last quarterly earnings call CEO Tim Cook said quote we are beating our expectations in terms of subscribers and the fact that Messi went to intermiami helped us out there a bit so we're very excited about it Apple TV plus isn't the only place you can see messy play Fox and Univision also have the rights to play a few games on broadcast TV Apple just has all the games it'll be interesting to see how this plays out for Apple's sports streaming and if it convinces other sports leagues then streaming live sports is the future especially at a time where we are seeing some Regional Sports Network struggle financially but it's not all sunshine and rainbows front office Sports reports that some advertisers are having a hard time knowing how well their ad campaigns are performing because it's hard to get data on streaming compared to the metrics of measuring with traditional Nielsen TV ratings the love of traditional broadcast also has put a bit of a damper on Apple's recent attempt to woo over some college football teams to the streaming side the Pac-12 college football conference has been through a lot of drama recently has there have been several schools leaving the conference now let's just say I am a tech news show so if you want more on that you should stream a sports news show but I can tell you one of the issues around schools leaving had to do with the inability of the Pac-12 to come up with a lucrative meteorite steal because schools get paid for each broadcast Apple reportedly made an offer to be the streamer for Pac-12 games but it wasn't enticing enough that athletic reported that the Apple deal was 23 million dollars per school and apparently underwhelming and yet the Athletics says Apple also had incentives tied to how many subscribers signed up for a Pac-12 package it's like the MLS season pass as ESPN reports the University of Washington's president said it would leave the Pac-12 not just because of money but that quote this was about National visibility for our players being on linear TV so they can be seen so they can have National exposure yeah the athletic reported there were no guarantees if Apple could simulcast certain games on broadcast TV like how Fox gets some soccer games so those conference games may not have gotten as many eyeballs ESPN has 75 million subscribers and it's hard to think that Apple could get that many people to buy a Pac-12 package even before the recent Exodus of schools speaking of broadcast let's turn our attention to ESPN every month or so it seems another article pops up online about how Apple may buy Disney and that is a bit wild to say that Apple would even want such a giant company with theme parks and all rather the latest speculation is that Disney might sell a piece of itself to Apple or just partner with apple to give it a boost of content Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC in July that he is open to finding a strategic partner for ESPN sure Disney could make a deal with anyone right but Disney and apple have a long history and we just saw Iger at Apple's WWDC saying Disney content is being made for the Apple Vision Pro headset and sports was teased to be included in that the demo videos went so far as to feature ESPN content on Vision Pro Apple doesn't need to buy a studio but perhaps it would really change the streaming game if it suddenly got a lot more content what we will have to see is how all of this influences the next big sports ball deals in all eyes are on basketball the National Basketball Association will need to make new broadcast and streaming deals for 2025. what happens now may determine what rights Apple will shoot for next has Sports influenced your streaming share your thoughts your wishes your desires for sports streaming in the comments below and I will catch you next week because like every week There's always one more thing to talk about with Apple\n"
