Major League Soccer is about to enter it’s 3rd year of a scheduled 10 year contract with Apple TV as concerns over viewing numbers are casting doubt on the future of the deal in place. MLS, which entered into a paywall contract with Apple TV for $25 million per year through 2032 has reports have come out that the MLS Cup Final drew just 65,000 viewers to the platform. While the numbers are not official due to Apple not releasing specific viewership numbers, per insider John Ourand, 20 year writer for Sports Business Journal & now Puck “Apple, which streamed the game, doesn’t release viewer figures, but all of Apple TV+ averaged just 287,000 viewers during the MLS Cup time slot on game night, per Nielsen’s Streaming Platform Ratings. For context, some 222,000 people were watching Apple TV+ during the same window the previous Saturday, when no live MLS match was being streamed, suggesting that MLS Cup led to an incremental gain of just 65,000 viewers.”
Regular viewing numbers were on par with this. Commissioner Don Garber recently spoke out that between 14 games on average per weekend Apple TV drew approximately 1,000,000 viewers for the weekend, an average of just over 71,000.
If true, this is a massive concern for this deal, and the league as a whole. The MLS Cup, which was also broadcast on FOX & FOX Deportes drew just 468,000 while the NWSL Final, recently broadcast on CBS, drew close to one million (967,000).
So what happens now? Garber insists that revenue sharing will occur, but will it be too late to turn a profit on this deal? Even the addition of Lionel Messi, arguably the second biggest athlete on the planet hasn’t show that the League can boost streaming numbers. Messi, who is under contract through 2025 with an option for 2026 will at some point no longer be the face of the league and taking with him, viewers.
At first I felt this deal was good for the league, I really did. But now after seeing these numbers and the contract in place this could become an albatross of a deal that could hurt the league more than help it. COULD MLS back out of the deal and align itself with Netflix as Women’s World Cup (SMARTLY) chose to? Unknown, Apple is using this as a showcase most likely to land a bigger fish; NFL, additional MLB, NBA and even some championships down the line. Who’s to say Apple won’t be the viewership home for Super Bowl LXV (2031)? But that’s a problem for later. The problem for now is how does MLS adjust course in year 3 and bring eyes to the streaming service? I’m open to suggestions.