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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

#171

Post by chiefalchemist »

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... .)

Yes. And that used to be a worthwhile effort. However, given all the choices consumers have today it's saying "go away. We don't want you." The MLB can't afford to lose more top of mind market share, especially to the younger audience.

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

#172

Post by MisterBastahrd »

ericmay wrote: post #169
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt either of those conferences would want to be stuck behind a paywall that is neither on terrestrial television or cable networks. Dealing with ESPN is dealing with ABC, which is a gigantic advantage. The SEC remains the power conference of power conferences, and whatever they decide is ultimately the way college football will trend. Their recent agreements with Oklahoma and the University of Texas are just a s…

> The SEC remains the power conference of power conferences, and whatever they decide is ultimately the way college football will trend. Not so fast my friend! :p The Big Ten in particular is a peer with the SEC in football viewership and revenue, but dwarfs the SEC in overall academic revenue and power. Texas and Oklahoma’s move to the SEC is a big deal, but these seismic shifts cause other seismic shifts and confer…

Well, it's sorta my point that the inevitable direction of college sports is a consolidation of power schools into a federation where they can manage their own interests without worrying about arbitrary NCAA limitations, and it's likely to include more than just the FBS. UNC, Kansas, Duke, and Clemson are likely the next schools to make moves.

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

#173

Post by reaperducer »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #163
ericmay wrote: post #61

This is a great move for Apple. The game-changer for them, IMO, is to buy the rights to broadcast Pac-12 and Big-10 football (and ideally all sports). I am an avid college football fan. Trying to find games to watch is a pain without some sort of lame ass subscription somewhere. I already pay for Apple TV + because it's bundled with other services that I use. With the incoming threat of ESPN + Disney + SEC fracturing…

I doubt either of those conferences would want to be stuck behind a paywall that is neither on terrestrial television or cable networks. Dealing with ESPN is dealing with ABC, which is a gigantic advantage. The SEC remains the power conference of power conferences, and whatever they decide is ultimately the way college football will trend. Their recent agreements with Oklahoma and the University of Texas are just a s…

I doubt either of those conferences would want to be stuck behind a paywall that is neither on terrestrial television or cable networks.

All they care about is the money. And Apple is one of the few companies that can write a check with enough zeros to make it happen.

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

#174

Post by reaperducer »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #165
Seanambers wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a lot i don't understand about how they view things in Cupertino. I mean, there must be a lot of people at Apple thinking about the future - what it will look like, how media is consumed and then again how Apple can own that pipeline and ecosystem. Both on the media side, hardware side and software side the offering is lacking in ways i find very strange coming from Apple. For instance why haven't Apple just…

> For instance why haven't Apple just gotten the internet broadcast rights to a lot of sports to build a moat around it - not because it is popular but because they can. With Apples finances they could also get alot of popular sports on Apple TV as well Because it's not in the interest of those sports leagues to kill off their viewing audiences. The average person who has cable has ESPN channels as part of their basi…

Also, in many cities the sports teams also own the channel that the games air on.

A team isn't going to yank its own games off of its own channel without a very good reason.

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

#175

Post by ecdavis »

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.

I don't watch baseball, but I always assumed MLB.tv and NHL.tv used the same technology.

The way NHL.tv used to work, the blackout check would be done when you opened the stream. So you could connect to a VPN in, say, Germany, start the stream, then disconnect the VPN and after a brief interruption the playback would continue. If you did the VPN connection from your router you could stream from any device, too.

Funny thing, the ads always seemed to know exactly what market you were in.

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

#176

Post by dylan604 »

vehemenz wrote: post #164
dylan604 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will happen right after the year of Linux desktops. The US National team being competitive in international is way too high of an expection from anyone that follows international soccer. The US is stuck geographically playing Mexico all. the. damn. time. They rarely play any European teams. They also rarely play good South American teams. Until they regularly play good teams, they will stagnate going back and fo…

I don't think the situation is that dire. For the USMNT, maybe—a lot of that is competition and coaching—but not for MLS and American players overall. The US has way more European pros now, playing on good, Champions League caliber teams. MLS has attracted higher quality talent, and the farm teams are producing better talent domestically.

Not that dire!?! There's a reason that FIFA games gives MLS such a low star rating in the game. Ever sit down on a Saturday morning to watch EPL/Serie A/League 1/Bundesliga/etc and then watch MLS on Saturday evenings? It's like watching professionals all day followed by little league. The level of play is so so much different. It's like driving on a long road trip at highway speeds to finally make it home and forced to slow down to drive a city speeds. Your body just feels like things are in slomo. That's how I feel about MLS.

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

#177

Post by vehemenz »

dylan604 wrote: post #176
vehemenz wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the situation is that dire. For the USMNT, maybe—a lot of that is competition and coaching—but not for MLS and American players overall. The US has way more European pros now, playing on good, Champions League caliber teams. MLS has attracted higher quality talent, and the farm teams are producing better talent domestically.

Not that dire!?! There's a reason that FIFA games gives MLS such a low star rating in the game. Ever sit down on a Saturday morning to watch EPL/Serie A/League 1/Bundesliga/etc and then watch MLS on Saturday evenings? It's like watching professionals all day followed by little league. The level of play is so so much different. It's like driving on a long road trip at highway speeds to finally make it home and forced…

Let's have perspective.

The EPL matches picked up over here for TV are between top-table, expensive clubs. Watch some bottom-table matches or matches from the Championship, and I'll think you'll find the quality isn't that far off from MLS.

US soccer including MLS has come a long, long way since 2010. Look at MLS from that era compared to today—it's night and day.

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

#178

Post by dylan604 »

bwing wrote: post #104
dylan604 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will happen right after the year of Linux desktops. The US National team being competitive in international is way too high of an expection from anyone that follows international soccer. The US is stuck geographically playing Mexico all. the. damn. time. They rarely play any European teams. They also rarely play good South American teams. Until they regularly play good teams, they will stagnate going back and fo…

This overestimates the role of international soccer in predicting future international soccer success. Players get 99% of their development with their club teams. While it is crucial for Americans to regularly play good teams, this experience is mostly going to happen in top European leagues and the Champions League. And we're in the midst of a huge boom period for Americans in Europe, with young Americans playing re…

Belgium has not one but two players named Hazard, a Mertens, a Lukaku, a Tielemens, just to name a few. It's not surprising they've jumped in the standings with a squad like that. They also have Martinez as a coach.

Just look at the recent fixture list of the USMNT[0]. I'm really not meaning to offend, but these are not soccer power house types of squads they are facing.

The USMNT has a long long way to go. As long as there competition with American Throwball, basketball, baseball, etc, the US will suffer this level of mediocrity as the money potential just isn't there.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men%27s_national...

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

#179

Post by dylan604 »

vehemenz wrote: post #177
dylan604 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that dire!?! There's a reason that FIFA games gives MLS such a low star rating in the game. Ever sit down on a Saturday morning to watch EPL/Serie A/League 1/Bundesliga/etc and then watch MLS on Saturday evenings? It's like watching professionals all day followed by little league. The level of play is so so much different. It's like driving on a long road trip at highway speeds to finally make it home and forced…

Let's have perspective. The EPL matches picked up over here for TV are between top-table, expensive clubs. Watch some bottom-table matches or matches from the Championship, and I'll think you'll find the quality isn't that far off from MLS. US soccer including MLS has come a long, long way since 2010. Look at MLS from that era compared to today—it's night and day.

So you're trying to convince me the MLS is something to celebrate as it at best matches 2nd tier leagues in other countries? Hmmm... That's like suggesting watching minor league baseball teams instead of watching the majors. Although, there's probably just as large of an audience for that than MLS.

But please, tell me how EPL matches work. They have lots of money with high salaries to pay the top talent in the world and attract the best coaching minds you say? I can't imagine why anyone would rather watch that /s

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

#180

Post by duped »

MrMetlHed wrote: post #105
foogazi wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the "no blackouts" thing is big Wow missed that - very big deal I have the MLB package and blackouts drive me nuts - I’m not even in the Bay Area, but close enough to not be able to watch Giants or A’s home games, Than it’s already starting to fragment: some Friday games on AppleTV, some weekend games on Peacock And MLB.tv doesn’t carry playoff games

It is really annoying that MLB.TV has gone the route with games on other providers. I don't want to create another account or install some other app on my TV or phone for a few games a season. At least the radio broadcasts still work on mlb.com when it happens.

It's the teams' faults and not the network. Most franchises that have blackouts have negotiated exclusive broadcast rights in their local markets.
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