Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi (10) scores a goal during the first half against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.
Paul Rutherford | Images from Imagn via Reuters Connect
Major League Soccer will take to a bigger stage next year, when all of its matches will find a new home on Apple TV.
Starting with the 2026 season, MLS games will be available on Apple'The leading streaming platform, currently featuring Major League Baseball games as well as scripted series like “Severance.”
The move marks a big change for both the league and Apple's media strategy, as the tech giant will end the Season Pass, the standalone subscription service for MLS games provided by Apple.
Apple and MLS had signed a 10-year media rights deal in 2022 that made Apple the exclusive global home of the US professional soccer league. However, instead of featuring matches on the fledgling streaming service, Apple launched Season Pass for an additional subscription only for MLS games.
“This idea of being able to watch all of our games in one place with the push of a button around the world was unprecedented. We really, really liked that concept with the Season Pass, and it worked because people reacted very well to the product,” MLS Deputy Commissioner Gary Stevenson said in an interview.
The Season Pass, which costs $14.99 a month, compared to the $12.99 charged for Apple TV's separate monthly subscription, began in 2023. Apple does not provide subscriber metrics for its streaming services.
Stevenson said talks about moving the league to Apple TV began as Apple's main streaming platform grew.
“They came to us and said, 'Let's put it on Apple TV,' and we said, 'We're all for it,'” Stevenson said. “So this was good news for us.”
While Stevenson didn't go into details, some terms of the deal changed as part of the move to Apple TV.
“But it's not like it's been a big renegotiation because we've been focused on distribution and how to make it a better, more accessible experience for fans,” Stevenson said.
Since jumping into the streaming game, Apple has methodically added sports to its platform and secured exclusive rights in an increasingly fragmented sports viewing ecosystem.
More recently Apple and Formula 1 signed an exclusive five-year media rights deal, meaning all races will be broadcast on Apple TV in the US starting next year. Apple is paying approximately $140 million a year for F1 rights, CNBC previously reported.
Apple has been looking to change the current sports viewing experience. While live sports attract huge audiences on the pay TV package, the rise of streaming has led to a fractured market in which consumers often require multiple subscriptions to watch a sport.
At a recent event, Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue said the market has “regressed” when it comes to sports viewership.
“You used to buy one subscription, your cable subscription, and you had pretty much everything they had. Now, there are so many different subscriptions, so I think that needs to be fixed,” Cue said during a panel in October.
Since MLS began its media rights deal with Apple, there has been little information about the performance of the Season Pass and some skepticism about its success.
However, MLS Commissioner Don Garber told CNBC Sport in an interview last year that subscriptions to Apple's Season Pass had exceeded expectations, although he declined to provide specific numbers.
“We have more subscribers than we and Apple thought we would have,” Garber told CNBC at the time, adding that there would be more transparency at a later date.
Apple also doesn't release figures for Apple TV, but Cue has said the platform has “significantly over 45 million” viewers.
The league's broader reach will come after MLS completes its 30th season. It has been working to capitalize on the growth in soccer's popularity in the United States, particularly ahead of the World Cup, which will take place in North America next year.
The league, which pales in comparison to the popularity of the NFL, NBA and other American professional sports that have existed for decades before MLS, has also seen fandom surge in recent years after global superstar Lionel Messi began playing for Inter Miami CF.
changing the clocks
On Thursday, MLS made another big change when it announced it would be changing its schedule to align with the schedule of global soccer leagues.
The MLS postseason during the fall coincided with one of the busiest times in the US: the start of the NFL, NBA and NHL seasons and the heart of the MLB postseason, which recently gained a large audience.
The change will also allow MLS teams to more seamlessly participate in the global player transfer window over the summer.
“Participating in the more active transfer window will now enhance, rather than disrupt, a team's ambitions for the season,” according to a press release.
Currently, the MLS regular season schedule runs from February to October, followed by the playoffs and then the championship game which takes place in December. Starting in the summer of 2027, MLS will adopt the new calendar.
