Apple Continues Push Into Live Sports With Major League Soccer Deal
- Apple on Tuesday announced a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer to broadcast MLS matches on its streaming service, TV+.
- Apple is ramping up its sports streaming offerings, and started airing Major League Baseball games this year.
Apple on Tuesday announced a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer to broadcast matches on its streaming service, the latest sign of the iPhone maker’s increased investment in exclusive content for Apple TV+.
The deal will make Apple’s app the only service where fans can watch all MLS matches without blackouts, Apple said on Tuesday. While some select matches will be available to Apple TV+ subscribers, who pay $4.99 a month, fans will have to buy a separate MLS subscription to watch all the matches. The cost of that service, which will be available globally, and the timing of its release were not disclosed.
Since launching Apple TV+ in 2019 and jumping into the heated streaming wars, Apple has been building a portfolio of original shows and movies. It’s also getting more aggressive with sports. This season, the company started broadcasting Major League Baseball games on Friday nights.
Don Garber, Commissioner of Major League Soccer, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the deal with Apple will help the league appeal to younger consumers.
“This is what they’ve asked for,” Garber said. “And we’re going to deliver them every match anywhere, anytime, anywhere around the world without any restrictions.”
Streaming Capabilities Without The Setup
Chances are you already have an Apple device nearby. If your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV are within reach, that means so are your favorite shows, movies and Pay-Per-View events. Its easy to stream Sling TV on Apple products because theres no need for expensive new equipment or complicated setups.
Sling supports Apple devices with iOS 11 or tvOS 11 and higher. That means if you want to stream the news during your morning commute, you can do so with your iPhone. When its time to cook dinner you can bring live TV into the kitchen with you on your MacBook. Hitting the road? Keep your kids entertained on long car rides with their iPad.
Directv Stream Cash Back
- Only valid for new DIRECTV STREAM subscribers.
- Only valid once per household.
- You must pay and maintain service for at least one month to be eligible.
- Purchase must be completed on the DIRECTV STREAM website.
- Youll receive gift card 4-6 weeks after purchase .
- Cannot be combined with any other promotion and wont be eligible if you try to use a coupon code or cash back from another site.
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The Rest Of The World
NFL Game Pass is a subscription service that gives football fans around the world live streams of every game. With NFL Game Pass, you also get live streams of the NFL Network and NFL RedZone.
There are a few exceptions, of course. The NFL has a deal with Sky Sports that prevents people in the UK and Ireland from live streaming games played in the UK.
Canadians cant get NFL Game Pass at all. Instead, they have to subscribe to a streaming sports network called DAZN.
Pick Your Favorite Teams To Follow
You can pick your favorite teams and then receive a notification when theyre about to play.
In the Sports screen of the Apple TV app , select Your Favorite Teams, then scroll to a category in the list.
Navigate to your team, then press the clickpad center or the touch surface to add it.
To remove a team, select it in Favorites, then select Remove.
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Browse And Watch Live Sports
Open the Apple TV app on Apple TV.
In the menu bar, navigate to Sports, then explore featured games, or browse by sport or category.
To start watching, select a sports event in progress, then select Live Now or Open In. If you havent subscribed to the channel or app, follow the onscreen instructions.
Use Siri Remote To Watch Live TV
Another really cool feature of the Apple TV is the Siri Remote, which lets you issue Siri voice commands to the Apple TV. And using the Siri Remote, you can quickly tell your Apple TV that you want to watch live TV. However, note that in order to do this, you must have the appropriate third-party app installed on your Apple TV.
If you do, simply do the following with Siri Remote to watch live TV:
Press the Siri button on the Siri Remote.
Say Watch or turn on and the appropriate app will launch displaying the current live TV feed.
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How To Watch Live Sports On Apple TV
If you’re a sports fan who owns an Apple TV, you have a new reason to love your little set-top box. The TV app has recently added a dedicated Sports section, which shows games and matches from various sports around the world that are available for live viewing in sport-related apps for the Apple TV.
Games for teams that you follow will even appear in your Up Next cue in the TV app’s home screen, with the current score on the carousel card. This way, even if you’re not watching the game, you can still stay up-to-date with it.
Here’s how you can use the TV app to enjoy live sports on the Apple TV.
Use Cable Providers Apps To Watch Live TV On Apple TV
Another way you can watch live TV channels on Apple TV is to download your cable providers Apple TV app. While not all cable TV providers offer an Apple TV app, some do. And some of those allow you to stream the TV channels available to you right through your Apple TV.
In this way, you can get your regular TV experience right on your Apple TV.
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What Does It Cost
That all depends on which offer you choose. If you buy an Apple device, Apple TV+ is included free for 3 months.1 A monthly subscription is just $4.99 per month after a free seven-day trial.2 Apple TV+ is included in Apple One, which bundles up to five other Apple services into a single monthly subscription. Apple One plans start at $14.95 per month. The Apple Music Student Plan comes with a free subscription to Apple TV+.3
Wait I Cant Watch My Team On TV Anymore
One bit of good news is that, for now, your viewing habits won’t have to change that much. If you watch sports on cable, that will still work. It just wont work for every game once baseball season starts in April and football season starts in September.
When the 2022 NFL season kicks off this fall, Thursday Night Football games will air exclusively on Amazons Prime Video app. Its an 11-year agreement between Amazon and the NFL which sees the Bezos empire shelling out $1 billion annually for the privilege of streaming just 15 regular season games a season. Thursday Night Football has been simulcast across Fox, NFL Network, and Prime Video since 2017, so the infrastructure is there. Now its just Amazon-exclusive.
As for baseball, America’s pastime, youll have to turn to the streaming home of Ted Lasso. Starting in April, two MLB games will air every Friday night exclusively on Apple TV+. Apple reportedly paid $85 million for the rights to just two games per week. The MLBs media apparatus will produce the broadcasts, so all Apple has to do is make sure the stream works. Apple TV+ hasnt yet been used to stream live events of this scale, so it remains to be seen how the streaming quality and performance will compare to regular TV.
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Why This Makes Espn And Regional Sports Networks Nervous
Major League Soccer dwells just outside the rarified popular sports neighborhood occupied by the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and college football and basketball. But even with MLS’s relative lack of popularity compared to the other leagues, this announcement from Apple is a Very Big Deal.
Live sports is by far the top reason millions of people have yet to cut the cord, severing their ties to cable companies and satellite TV providers. That’s merely because the easiest way to follow your hometown teamoutside of the NFL, which has all of its games free to air in local marketsis to subscribe to your local cable company or a satellite provider. Those are the folks who carry the regional sports network that has the rights to broadcast your local teams. For a Chicagoan who wants to catch all of the Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Fire, and Red Stars matches, their only choices to follow the action are Marquee Sports Network and NBC Sports Chicago, both of which require a cable or satellite TV subscription.
Apple TV changes that model with today’s announcement. If you’re a die-hard Columbus fan and you want to watch your beloved Crew anywhere, anytime, you have a new option that doesn’t involve Comcast or DirecTV. And if you’ve been holding on to cable just so you can watch the Crew, this is going to be a lot cheaper.
How Can I Watch It
Watch Apple TV+ on the Apple TV app, which is already on your favorite Apple devices. Just open the app, click or tap Apple TV+, and enjoy the shows and movies. You can also watch Apple TV+ on streaming platforms, popular smart TVs, and AirPlay-enabled TVs with the Apple TV app or watch online at tv.apple.com.
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Apple TV Plus To Stream 2 Major League Baseball Games Live On Fridays
Joan E. Solsman
Senior reporter
Joan E. Solsman is CNET’s senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She’s reported from locations spanning Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
What’s happening
Apple is dipping its toe into live programming, a totally new format for Apple TV Plus, which has stuck to on-demand original shows and movies since it launched in 2019.
Why it matters
With two MLB games now exclusive to yet another distributor, Friday Night Baseball is the latest example of how finding what you want to watch online is growing increasingly complicated.
What’s next
Apple TV Plus’ Friday Night Baseball won’t throw its first pitch until the league and players’ union resolve their labor dispute, which has already delayed the start of the regular season. Talks are ongoing.
Apple TV Plus will stream two live baseball games on Friday nights, Apple said Tuesday, plus pre- and post-game shows, a nightly live highlights program and a new 24/7 feed of baseball-related video. Once the Major League Baseball season actually starts, the games will represent the first live sports on Apple’s $5-a-month subscription streaming service since it launched in late 2019. Up until now, Apple TV Plus stuck to on-demand original series and movies.
Nfl And Nfl Sunday Ticket Apps For Apple TV
The NFL offers two apps for Apple TV, but they certainly wont replace cable or an antenna. Football is the most popular sport in the US. It generates a lot of revenue from advertising. The franchises also want to make sure people will show up at the games. For these reasons and more, both NFL apps are severely limited. They have also garnered the ire of customers, who have given both apps poor ratings, for good reason. You cant really watch live football games on these apps. The NFL app allows for playing past games, on demand, if you pay for a subscription. With the NFL Sunday Ticket app, users can play some live games as long as its Sunday, theyre not blacked out and youre a DIRECTV subscriber. Theres a good reason why both of these apps are rated at 1.5/5 stars.
The apps themselves are fairly decent and exhibit quality software development. Its just that the business aspects have dictated that you cant really watch football games on Apple TV. This absurdity is not just limited to sports. Most networks require a cable or satellite subscription to activate their content. This is precisely why TV devices such as Apple TV are not catching on. The technology is here, but the businesses are lagging behind, clinging to their old and profitable ways. They can also profit from interactive television, but they seem to adhere to the old adage if it aint broke, dont fix it.
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How To Set Up The TV App For Your Favorite Teams On Apple TV
You can select your favorite teams and be notified when one of their games is on. Your choices for favorite teams will also sync to the TV app on iPhone and iPad.
Select the Sports tab.
Select one of the available sports.
Highlight Favorites to see all of the teams that you’ve chosen in one place.
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Could This Make Life Harder For Sports Fans
If any of this sounds worrying, dont fret too much. These sports leagues negotiate TV rights deals that last entire , so the way it works now is the way its going to work for several more years. As an example, the NFLs current arrangement runs through 2033.
Still, there are opportunities for viewing inconveniences with what Eric Schmitt, an analyst at market research firm Gartner, calls the streamification of sports right now. The most obvious one is a lack of reliable home internet in rural areas. Last year, the Biden administration said 30 million Americans lived in places with unacceptable broadband infrastructure.
This does seem topotentially further disenfranchise those of us who dont have reliable high speed access either because of where we live or our economic status, Schmitt said.
And while a great many of our beloved senior citizens can work their way around modern tech, its no secret that older people tend to acclimate poorly to these sorts of changes. Apple getting in bed with baseball to start its streaming journey is fascinating because that sport has the oldest audience of the big team sports. Sports Business Journal estimated the median baseball viewer to be 57 in 2016. Obviously, six years have passed since then, so baseball’s audience isn’t getting any younger.
Watch Sports On Apple TV
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tvOS brings a whole new level of interactivity to live sports broadcasts. This article covers how to watch sports on Apple TV.
Sports are the most viewed content on television. One only need look at Nielsen ratings to see that the Super Bowl dominates the list of most viewed broadcasts. Given the enormous popularity of sports, the content is guarded by networks. While anyone with a TV and antenna can watch sports for free, the new era of Internet broadcasting has networks feeling less generous. Its hard to find free sports apps on any platform. At best, you may be able to activate a free app if you pay for a cable or satellite subscription. In recent years, major events such as the Super Bowl have been available for free. But if you want to really follow any major sport, you typically have to pay.
This trend isnt as dystopian as it seems. There are compelling reasons to watch sports on a TV appliance such as Apple TV. tvOS apps, unlike broadcast television, have the potential to be interactive. These new features allow fans to view statistics, check schedules and even watch multiple games on the same screen. You may have to pay for this advanced functionality, but its much cheaper than actually going to the game. In fact, subscribing to one season of interactive sports usually costs less than one ticket to a professional sporting event.
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Apple ‘ready To Spend Billions’ On Live Sports Content Over Next Four Years
Apple is on an “aggressive hunt” for potential deals that would allow it to broadcast live sports content on its TV+ streaming service as part of a wider effort to boost subscription numbers, according to a new report from investment firm Wedbush.
In a new investor note, seen by MacRumors, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said he regards Apple’s decision not to acquire a movie studio yet as a clear indication that it now sees live sports programming as potentially a key piece of its future success for growing the audience of its video streaming service.
Apple has not provided details on Apple TV+ subscriber numbers since the digital streaming service began, but Wedbush estimates that Apple TV+ has around 20 million paid subscribers among roughly 45 million viewers, the rest of which are seeing out free trials included with other Apple product purchases.
That’s a fraction of the number of subscriptions that the likes of Disney+ and Netflix enjoys. Knowing this, Apple is apparently “ready to spend billions” on live sports content over the next four years to drive the future growth of Apple TV+ and make it a key monetization engine in its burgeoning services ecosystem, which earned it $80 billion in annual revenue in the last financial year.