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Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

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Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#31

Post by eschulz »

avgDev wrote: post #26

This is probably one of the best decision by any TV provider. MLS is going to blow up in the coming years. There is a lot of talk about US national team being very competitive in 2026 World Cup. MLS has produced stars already, like Alphonso Davies. Once the hype gets higher and more money start being spent on soccer in the US, it will become a power house.

MLS is also a good place to see some of Europe's biggest stars play in the final years of their careers. I've always thought a league full of almost-retired legends was a good way to get some publicity.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#32

Post by rwc »

colinmhayes wrote: post #21
porcoda wrote: post #17

Finally! I don't care if it's apple or someone else, but the "no blackouts" thing is big. Nothing drives me more crazy than being unable to stream a game because I happen to live in the same geographic region as the team home field. This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription - the only sport I watch is soccer, and the only reason I keep the cable TV is so I can dig out the remote whenever the…

> This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription Which is exactly why blackouts exist. Live tv is pretty much solely about sports and 24 hour news channels now. The big four sports leagues all make billions a year off their TV deals. Giving up blackouts would absolutely hamstring them. Hard to believe the other leagues will give up blackouts until they are confident they can run their own streamin…

As I understand it, blackouts primarily exist to ensure local ticket sales for full stadiums.

"In most cases, the blackout results when a sports league prohibits an event from being televised locally if the event did not sell out all its tickets."

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/sports-blackouts#:~:tex....)

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#33

Post by nonameiguess »

remarkEon wrote: post #6

I would love to go back in time and tell my grandfather in the 1980s, who despite his age was pretty enamored with technology, that all of this newfangled stuff would actually make it more difficult for him to watch sports. You get cool and sleek looking "set top" devices, but oh sorry there's a labyrinth of "streaming" subscriptions you have to navigate to figure out how to watch your games. At some point, this kind…

I was pretty young, but from what I remember of the 80s, other than Monday Night Football and playoffs, it was not possible to watch anything but local games at all, and many of the local games required add-on cable packages. Also, MLS didn't yet exist, so it wasn't possible to watch any MLS games at all.

The blackout restrictions suck where they apply, but at the same time, as a person who doesn't live in his hometown, without satellite or streaming packages, I wouldn't be able to watch the teams I care about at all except when they visit the teams that play where I live.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#34

Post by arkades »

imachine1980_ wrote: post #28
permo-w wrote: post #12

I know people are often sceptical about Apple, but here is yet another example of them doing something that makes me go "hmm yes that's better than everyone else". They're still not back to their Jobs days in terms of uniqueness and innovation, but I am glad that Apple and their race-to-the-top philosophy exists in this market

???, they made a deal to sport league to increase the market share of their services and made people lock in their ecosystems, it make sense but I don think is philosphy perspective.is simply content that Mach their interests .

They’re addressing a real pain point that real people actually have and regularly fork out money for. The fact that they didn’t do it out of altruism means diddly squat.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#35

Post by logicalmonster »

Assuming there's no super-fine print that somehow says otherwise and can be enacted on a whim, making sure there's no broadcast restrictions is very smart.

I've wanted to use NBA league pass in the past to follow my team, and the crazy broadcast restrictions meant that on the rare occasion I had the time to watch a game, it was a shot in the dark as to whether or not I'd actually be able to. On many occasions it was very upsetting to have an evening to myself wanting to simply watch a game I felt I paid for and to find out my game wasn't actually available after all.

I understand that the sports leagues customers are really the cable channels who pay them big cash for the broadcast rights, but this kind of thing was a big part of what killed my extreme enthusiasm for pro sports.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#36

Post by twoodfin »

dgritsko wrote: post #24

I'm really curious as to what Apple's broader strategy is with live sports, since that's typically been one of the last big reasons to keep a cable subscription. However, given that Apple TV Plus is going to have at least some MLB games[1] and is rumored to possibly be the new home for the NFL Sunday Ticket[2], they could be seeking to make it the must-have subscription for fans of live sports. https://www.apple.com/…

It also gives them a compelling way to tier their service & grow revenue from existing subscribers.

From this perspective, something like Sunday Ticket makes a lot of sense even with the hefty price tag, so long as they’re allowed to parcel out those games as they’d like.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#37

Post by colinmhayes »

rwc wrote: post #32
colinmhayes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription Which is exactly why blackouts exist. Live tv is pretty much solely about sports and 24 hour news channels now. The big four sports leagues all make billions a year off their TV deals. Giving up blackouts would absolutely hamstring them. Hard to believe the other leagues will give up blackouts until they are confident they can run their own streamin…

As I understand it, blackouts primarily exist to ensure local ticket sales for full stadiums. "In most cases, the blackout results when a sports league prohibits an event from being televised locally if the event did not sell out all its tickets." https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/sports-blackouts#:~:tex... .)

So I think we're referring to different blackouts. I believe OP was complaining that streaming services such as NBA league pass never show your local team. If you want to watch your team you need a cable subscription. That's different than your local TV station not showing the game because it didn't sell out.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#38

Post by mbreese »

porcoda wrote: post #17

Finally! I don't care if it's apple or someone else, but the "no blackouts" thing is big. Nothing drives me more crazy than being unable to stream a game because I happen to live in the same geographic region as the team home field. This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription - the only sport I watch is soccer, and the only reason I keep the cable TV is so I can dig out the remote whenever the…

> the dumb blackout rules prevent me from watching it via streaming

The blackout MLS rules are really dumb. For example, I het my normal TV through DirecTV stream. My local MLS club (FC Cincinnati) airs their local broadcast on a local over the air channel. This channel is also on my DirecTV subscription.

However, because I get my “TV” streamed over the internet and not through a satellite dish or cable, all local MLS games were blacked out for me. I pay for local TV access, but even when the game was broadcast over the air, I would get blacked out because of how I got the TV access.

This was just dumb.

I specifically got a network OTA tuner just for this purpose, but getting rid of blackout rules entirely would be fantastic.

Re: Apple and MLS to present all MLS matches for 10 years, beginning in 2023

#40

Post by hansword »

permo-w wrote: post #12

I know people are often sceptical about Apple, but here is yet another example of them doing something that makes me go "hmm yes that's better than everyone else". They're still not back to their Jobs days in terms of uniqueness and innovation, but I am glad that Apple and their race-to-the-top philosophy exists in this market

Unfortunately I fail to see how buying broadcasting rights could be classed as "uniqueness and innovation"... would you care to elaborate?
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