Major League Soccer will kick off its 2026 season this upcoming weekend. For the first time since the league signed its all-encompassing media rights deal with Apple for the 2023 season and beyond, all games will be available as part of a standard Apple TV subscription.
The change comes as the league looks to modernize its approach to media rights. MLS struggled to gain traction in its first three seasons with Apple, when most games were locked behind the MLS Season Pass paywall, which cost fans about $100 per season. Apple TV was already one of the least-watched streaming platforms in the country according to Nielsen measurements, capturing less than 0.5% of all television viewing. Placing games on such a sparsely watched platform behind a separate paywall wasn’t a recipe for success.
With some minor changes last season, like introducing a marquee Sunday Night Soccer window that aired in front of the Season Pass paywall and striking distribution deals to include matches on Xfinity and DirecTV channel guides, the league increased viewership compared to Year 2.
The hope now is that simplifying the experience and making it more accessible, with all matches included in the $12.99 per month Apple TV subscription, should improve on last year’s numbers even further.
But what looms ahead for MLS should give the league and its owners some pause. Under the new terms with Apple, MLS’s deal, originally scheduled to terminate after the 2032 season, will now end after the 2028-29 season. That timing is looking worse by the day as leagues posture to secure their media rights futures with the NFL bringing its rights to market years earlier than originally thought.
Already, the PGA Tour and the NHL, whose deals expire in 2030 and 2028, respectively, have begun negotiating extensions early to avoid competing for scraps as the NFL’s new deals take a significant share of the market. Other entities will likely follow suit, though it’s unclear if any of the NFL’s current media partners will take the bait and strike other deals before knowing how much they’ll need to pay to retain the NFL.
Even as other leagues posture, MLS commissioner Don Garber thinks discussing extensions for his league’s rights is “way too premature.” Garber also told Sports Business Journal that the league has yet to retain an advisory firm for its next media rights negotiations.
More immediately, MLS’s limited package of linear games with Fox expires at the end of this season. Per SBJ, the league will attempt to negotiate a new linear deal that is “coterminous” with its Apple deal so all of its rights can be available for bid following the 2028-29 season. Such a deal would include the league’s transition season from February to May 2027, before MLS shifts to a summer-to-spring calendar to align with other top leagues globally, the 2027-28 season, and the 2028-29 season.
Securing a substantial increase in media rights might be easier said than done for MLS. The league opted to join Apple because the $250 million per year for 10 years was far more than it could have gotten from traditional broadcast partners. However, that deal came at the cost of reaching a wide swath of casual fans who won’t actively seek out MLS games on a streaming service.
Apple is reportedly paying MLS a bit more under the updated agreement, perhaps in the neighborhood of $50 million more. Still, it’s unclear whether the league can meaningfully exceed that amount in its next negotiations.
“I think it’s going to be hard [for MLS],” veteran media rights consultant Patrick Crakes told SBJ. “Their best outcome, from an economic perspective, is to grow 20% to 30% and find a partner that is going to be stable, who can give them a mix of things from a distribution perspective.”
A 20% to 30% increase is a pittance in media rights valuations. On the high end, the NBA was just able to triple the overall value of its media deals. On the low end, NASCAR’s recent deals increased in value by about 40%, but the motorsport circuit had to split its rights among five separate media partners to secure that increase.
Leagues like MLS are entering a tough marketplace. The NFL is prepared to take many billions of dollars per year out of the wallets of top broadcasters. MLS is a nice-to-have property, but far from a necessity. Its performance on Apple over the next few seasons will determine how the league is valued for other potential broadcast partners. Does MLS meaningfully reduce churn for Apple TV? Is the league boosting subscribers for the service? Are more people watching?
There’s reason to be cautiously optimistic. The league will be more available now than in the last three seasons. A home World Cup this year might convert some fans on the margins. The shift to a summer-spring schedule will help the league’s postseason avoid direct competition with football.
“When the [media rights] traffic jam happens, we want to be in a position of strength, and we want to have the biggest audience we possibly can,” MLS EVP of media rights Seth Bacon told SBJ.
That will be the league’s best hope for breaking through in a crowded market.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.