Major League Soccer on Apple TV is already a great product, but it’s promoted poorly, Ian Nicholas Quillen writes for Forbes.
Ian Nicholas Quillen for Forbes:
Rewind for a moment to last June, when Major League Soccer and Apple TV first revealed they would be partnering together for the next decade in a revolutionary worldwide streaming partnership. And imagine that they stressed these three points, in this order:
1. Starting in 2023, Apple TV would show roughly 40% of the league’s matches for free to anyone in the world with a high-speed internet connection.
2. The league would take over TV production and upgrade telecasts to a standard similar other major North American sports leagues and major soccer leagues around the world in terms of production quality and pre- and post-match programming.
3. Fans those who wanted even more MLS content could purchase MLS Season Pass for access to every single game in the league. The price ($99.99 yearly, $14.99 per month) would similar to packages in other North American sports leagues, but without regional blackouts and free to season-ticket holders.
In short, this new era has actually made the league a lot more accessible for most fans. Yet that’s an aspect of their new agreement MLS and Apple seemed to almost purposefully ignore when this agreement first launched, instead placing the majority of the emphasis on promoting the Season Pass subscription ahead of most other aspects of the deal.
MacDailyNews Take: Agreed. Apple’s MLS promotion is ass-backwards (sometimes even Apple’s vaunted marketing department can get lost in the weeds).
Quillen’s first point is what Apple and MLS should be stressing and should have stressed from the moment the deal was announced:
The Apple TV app streams some 40% of MLS matches for free to anyone in the world with a high-speed internet connection.
Try it yourself: Fire up the Apple TV app on your device of choice and click / tap the “MLS” tab – the quality upgrade of the broadcasts this season with Apple involved is significant!
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Watching Soccer on TV or in person? Couldn’t think of anything more boring. Won’t even watch for free.
Lol, MLS is such a shit league and I’m a soccer fan.
Most boring sport ever. I’ve tried but how does anybody make it. Do these people ever watch ANY other sport? Does cardboard taste good if you’ve never had anything else?
Soccer seems only interesting to people who love to “virtue signal” and “look at me, I’m into diversity and world culture” wave the flag! than actually being entertained.
There is no question soccer is truly a sport of the Apple type person.