The MLS on Apple TV will no longer be behind an additional paywall, Paul Tenorio at The Athletic revealed last week. The company confirmed the decision on Thursday. The extra subscription will be scrapped next year. Instead, anyone who has the streaming service will be able to access all the games.
The idea, of course, is to make the league more accessible. (I’m personally pleased. The change means that watching one of my favourite players of time – LAFC’s Son Heung-Min, will be easier.) The decision is a significant pivot. It brings its Apple TV MLS more in line with the service’s (departing) baseball coverage.
Bringing Eyeballs to Major League Soccer
“We’re thrilled to bring MLS to more fans around the world next season on Apple TV,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services. “Every match, all in one place, alongside incredible Apple Originals — it’s a win for fans everywhere.”
“Our partnership with Apple has always been about innovating for our fans,” said Don Garber, Major League Soccer’s commissioner. “Bringing every MLS match to Apple TV takes that vision to the next level by making it easier than ever for fans everywhere to watch, connect, and be part of the game.”
Francois Godard of Enders Analysis told me:
Apple is on a learning curve. Now Apple wants to make Apple TV a for-profit unit as opposed to a device-selling, loss leader. They are making new bundling partnerships, two years ago with Canal+, earlier in 2025 with Telefónica, recently with Peacock.
I think it is absolutely true that the company is testing the waters with live sports broadcasting in its typical way. Godard said that Cupertino “must have realised that MLS was not attractive enough to be sold on its own, optional sports packages are not that common in the US, MLS is not NFL Sunday Ticket.” That is something of an understatement! If the aim of the the decade-long deal between streamer and league was to help bring eyeballs to both, slapping an extra cost on was the wrong way to go about it.
Furthermore, Godard noted that “the optional sports package did not work for Amazon in France.” Paying a subscription on top of a subscription is frustrating. When we shell out for a streamer, we generally expect to have access to all its content.
Apple TV MLS Changes Influenced by F1
The recent F1 deal looms large over the football changes too. Danni Moore of Ampere Analysis thinks that “it’s likely that the decision to drop the Season Pass has been influenced by the F1 deal: with that due to be part of the standard subscription package in the US, it’s more limiting to the MLS to keep it behind the extra paywall.”
Godard also recognised the significance of the MLS deal. “The decision is consistent with that of making the F1 content available to all Apple TV subscribers,” he said
In a further change, the Major League Soccer season is set to align better with the top European leagues. “With the announcement that the league is switching its season dates to be more in line with the European leagues in the future, it will have more competition for its regular season from other American leagues happening at the same time i.e. NFL and NBA, so removing that extra barrier will help in keeping/gaining viewers,” added Moore.
Whatever the alterations, the reality is that MLS, whether it is on Apple TV or elsewhere, is just not that popular. According to Moore:
In our yearly sports consumer survey, we’ve seen popularity of other football competitions (e.g. the Premier League and Men’s Champions League) grow in the US from 2023 to 2024 (we’re still waiting for 2025 data), but that of the MLS has stayed much the same. But with the World Cup being hosted in the US this year, dropping the extra paywall gives the MLS more chance to capitalise on growing engagement with football in the country to grow the league’s domestic fanbase.
Some games have already been put in front of the paywall. This included playoff games and some on Sunday evenings. It’s a start. However, more work is going to be done if Apple TV is going to bring more fans into MLS. According to Moore:
Only 4 percent of football fans in the markets we survey outside of the US say they follow the MLS, so there is room for growth and this move helps to remove one of the barriers to that.
Surely, making it easier and cheaper to watch is the right way to begin bringing that number up.
About the Author
