Apple and Major League Soccer to have a 10 year contract

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Major League Soccer and Apple TV agree to 10-year partnership

Major League Soccer and Apple TV announced a partnership on Tuesday that will see every game streamed on the app for the next decade.

www.reuters.com

Wow 10 years is a long broadcast contract.

Apple, MLS agree 10-year media rights deal

Major League Soccer and Apple TV announced a 10-year media rights agreement on Tuesday worth a reported $2.5 billion that will see every single MLS game broadcast from the 2023 season onwards.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[CTListener]

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/s...pple-TV-agree-10-year-partnership-2022-06-14/

Wow 10 years is a long broadcast contract.

Apple, MLS agree 10-year media rights deal

Major League Soccer and Apple TV announced a 10-year media rights agreement on Tuesday worth a reported $2.5 billion that will see every single MLS game broadcast from the 2023 season onwards.

sports.yahoo.com

Big loss for Disney/ESPN, which has already lost the quadrennial World Cup, biennial UEFA Nations League and Serie A (Italian soccer) in the past year. Meanwhile, the Mouse continues to gobble up cricket properties, just this past week winning a big-time bidding war for the Indian Premier League. Both soccer and cricket are niche sports in the US, but soccer is easily the more popular of the two among all but expats from the Subcontinent and several Caribbean nations, all of them former colonial holdings of Britain. Does ESPN feels the potential ROI of cricket is somehow greater that that of soccer?

This deal also confirms that Apple+ is a serious player in the shift of sports programming away from over-the-air TV and even cable/satellite to services only available to those with internet equipment and access, which may eventually force even the millions of remaining anti-internet Luddites and privacy worriers into going online or doing without sports they enjoy.

 

[Marcos_C]

Does ESPN feels the potential ROI of cricket is somehow greater that that of soccer?

I don't know much about cricket other than it is a sport that binds nations of the Commonwealth together and that it makes a brief appearance on a TV set in last week's episode of Ms. Marvel; however, I do know that ESPN+ still covers the Bundesliga (Germany) and LaLiga (Spain). ESPN's agreement with the Bundesliga runs until 2025-26, and its agreement with LaLiga runs until 2028-29. Neither of the two popular European leagues is cheap.

 

[CTListener]

I don't know much about cricket other than it is a sport that binds nations of the Commonwealth together and that it makes a brief appearance on a TV set in last week's episode of Ms. Marvel; however, I do know that ESPN+ still covers the Bundesliga (Germany) and LaLiga (Spain). ESPN's agreement with the Bundesliga runs until 2025-26, and its agreement with LaLiga runs until 2028-29. Neither of the two popular European leagues is cheap.

Right. ESPN plucked La Liga away from CBS Sports Network (I think) after it lost Serie A. I'm sure ESPN would love the biggest soccer prize, the Premier League, but NBC/Peacock recently extended their deal.

 

[Marcos_C]

Right. ESPN plucked La Liga away from CBS Sports Network (I think) after it lost Serie A.

Actually, it was beIN Sports that previously aired the games of LaLiga. beIN Sports is now the US broadcaster of France's Ligue 1.

 

[CTListener]

Update on cricket. This article reports that Disney only got the television rights to the India Premier League, with streaming rights going to a group that includes Paramount. This is bad for ESPN, which now loses yet more content for ESPN+ while keeping content with little value to US viewers and unlikely to appear on cable or OTA television here. The TV rights in the UK and other cricket nations where ESPN does business help some, but the problem of viewers abandoning TV for streaming is only going to get bigger. WSJ sees this as a "reset" opportunity for Disney, somehow.

Disney Should Make Its Cricket Loss Count

Opportunity to reset company’s ambitious streaming subscriber target now could prove valuable later.

www.wsj.com