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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

#51

Post by relaxatorium »

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.

It's a gamble, because as of now they're not even the most popular soccer league in America let alone the world.

Liga MX (Mexican soccer) ratings destroy them for the obvious reasons (the league the US's largest most passionate soccer fanbase is most passionate about), EPL ratings beat them pretty handily as well (English Premier League, the highest profile and probably best of the European leagues).

Given the money and momentum behind MLS though, there is at least a chance by the end of this deal that they have become one of the top soccer leagues in the world and Apple looks extremely clever, which is not something you can really say for a lot of leagues with actual better soccer than MLS has right now.

It is weird that Apple, one of the biggest companies in the world, now has a vested interest in globally promoting a specific soccer league. MLS is probably thrilled with this compared to their current situation where ESPN+ does dump pretty much all the games onto streaming as content, but is generally disinterested in promoting it too heavily because of their vast prtfolio of already more popular sports.

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

#52

Post by jdminhbg »

throwaway12245 wrote: post #43
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.

U.S. Soccer is a joke : that goes for international and MLS. Top U.S. club is ranked 122 in the world : https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/glob... U.S. got beat by some central american club and did not qualify for world cup last time. MLS is a rigged league. Purported local "ownership" is a ruse. MLS management decides who wins championship. Real U.S. soccer fans follow top European leagues and…

Ah yes, the old "oi m8 I watch proper footy down the pub" archetype. MLS is "rigged," top Euro leagues like the one Bayern has won nine consecutive times are "not."

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

#53

Post by alostpuppy »

relaxatorium wrote: post #51
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.

It's a gamble, because as of now they're not even the most popular soccer league in America let alone the world. Liga MX (Mexican soccer) ratings destroy them for the obvious reasons (the league the US's largest most passionate soccer fanbase is most passionate about), EPL ratings beat them pretty handily as well (English Premier League, the highest profile and probably best of the European leagues). Given the money…

From a value prospective it might work out well. I don’t watch soccer and I’ll probably watch a few matches. I suppose it all comes down to the price they paid.

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

#54

Post by jdminhbg »

sjm-lbm wrote: post #49
hansword wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's hard to guess, but based on this press release guessing is all that we can do, so.. The UI for sports is currently terrible, by and large. The best you can do - despite the fact that everyone has a computer attached to and/or in their TV these days - is stream a linear broadcast channel. With this deal, Apple can show you a dashboard of all the games currently playing so you can pick a close and/or intresting on…

Apple obviously does not like to preannounce products, but with a ten-year time horizon, some form of AR/VR has to be in their plans as well.

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

#55

Post by babypuncher »

colinmhayes wrote: post #29
afavour wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "Chromecast with Google TV" excludes older Chromecast devices. Not that I really blame Apple here, I've played around with Chromecasts a few times and they're wildly underpowered even if they are ubiquitous.

The appleTV remote couldn't change the volume on my tv for whatever reason. Since I bought a dumb monitor style TV the only option was to walk up to it and use the buttons. Switched to chromecast and the volume controls worked. Hard for me to imagine going back to apple, even if the chromecast is a tad slower.

The Apple TV remote can be configured to control volume via IR or through HDMI CEC. When plugged into a new display, the Apple TV tries to auto configure this based on what devices it detects. It's possible it messed up with IR and you just needed to manually set it to use CEC.

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

#56

Post by Petersipoi »

jayknight wrote: post #23
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…

MLB next, please. I don't have cable, which means I just don't watch baseball right now. I would 100% sign up for MLB.tv if I could watch my two favorite teams play.

Yep. Fortunately I don't live in the same state as my baseball team anymore. So I watch just about all their games through MLB.tv. Would be so frustrating if I lived near my team though.

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

#57

Post by HidyBush »

throwaway12245 wrote: post #43
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.

U.S. Soccer is a joke : that goes for international and MLS. Top U.S. club is ranked 122 in the world : https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/glob... U.S. got beat by some central american club and did not qualify for world cup last time. MLS is a rigged league. Purported local "ownership" is a ruse. MLS management decides who wins championship. Real U.S. soccer fans follow top European leagues and…

>U.S. Soccer is a joke

U.S. male Soccer is a joke*

I urge anyone curious about this topic to go and look how the US female soccer team performs globally, it truly speaks about how the US has a bad soccer team simply because all the talent is funneled elsewhere

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

#58

Post by herbstein »

throwaway12245 wrote: post #43
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.

U.S. Soccer is a joke : that goes for international and MLS. Top U.S. club is ranked 122 in the world : https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/glob... U.S. got beat by some central american club and did not qualify for world cup last time. MLS is a rigged league. Purported local "ownership" is a ruse. MLS management decides who wins championship. Real U.S. soccer fans follow top European leagues and…

The top Danish team is 102nd, and we barely lost our semifinal at the Euros in 2021. National league quality is not the same as talent pool quality. Especially not when cohesion is what truly matters in national teams. Just take a look at how France has performed in the last 4 Nations League games, even with their top-class players.

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

#60

Post by hermitdev »

eschulz wrote: post #31
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.

I was a season ticket holder of a club that kept bringing in the older stars. Frankly, it was frustrating as a fan that wanted to see their team do well in the MLS Cup & US Open Cup. I was a ticket holder during one US Open Cup win and elimination in the semi finals of an MLS Cup run. The team did both without retiring international stars.

My perspective on the big money stars coming in is that it's a huge financial drain on the team for around 1/2-3 years of performance by the star. Yes, MLS has designated players (DPs), but last I looked, the first $500k in salary still counts towards the team's salary cap. I'm not sure what the salary cap is this year, but even if they've doubled it from the last time I paid attention, it'd only be $5M... It's a huge chunk of change relative to the rest of the team for not a lot of performance. Teams would largely be better off finding and growing youth talent than brining in another DP.

I finally gave up on my tickets after nearly 15 years because it was apparent the team wasn't interested in winning cups anymore. Ownership just wanted to fill the stadium with whatever retiring star they could get their hands on.

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