MLS games head to Apple TV in 2026 as Season Pass ends

Major League Soccer steps onto a bigger stage next year and all of its matches will find a new home AppleTV.

MLS matches will be played starting from the 2026 season available Open Apple’It’s the flagship streaming platform, which currently includes Major League Baseball games as well as scripted series like “Severance.”

The move marks a major shift for both the league and Apple’s media strategy, as the tech giant will discontinue Season Pass, the separate subscription service provided by Apple for MLS games.

Apple and MLS signed a 10-year media rights deal in 2022 that sees Apple become the sole global home of the US professional soccer league. But instead of featuring matches on its fledgling streaming service, Apple has launched the Season Pass for an additional subscription solely for MLS games.

“The idea that you could watch all our matches in one place with the push of a button was unprecedented globally. We really liked the Season Pass concept and it worked because people responded really well to the product,” MLS Deputy Commissioner Gary Stevenson said in an interview.

Season Ticket — which costs $14.99 per month, compared to $12.99 charged for a separate monthly Apple TV subscription starting in 2023. Apple does not provide subscriber metrics for streaming services.

Stevenson said conversations about bringing the league to Apple TV began as Apple’s main streaming platform grew.

“They came to us and said, ‘Let’s put this on Apple TV,’ and we said, ‘We’re all in,'” Stevenson said. “So that was good news for us.”

Although Stevenson didn’t go into specifics, some terms of the deal have changed as part of the move to Apple TV.

“But it wasn’t a major renegotiation because our focus was on distribution and how to make it a better, more accessible experience for fans,” Stevenson said.

Since launching streaming gaming, Apple has steadily added sports to its platform, gaining exclusive rights to an increasingly fragmented sports viewing ecosystem.

Recently Apple and Formula 1 signed an exclusive five-year media rights deal; This means all races will be broadcast on Apple TV in the US starting next year. Apple is paying about $140 million a year for F1 rights, CNBC previously reported.

Apple is looking to change the current sports viewing experience. While live sports have garnered large audiences across the paid TV bundle, the rise of streaming has led to a fragmented market where consumers often need multiple subscriptions to watch a sport.

At a recent event, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue said the market is “going backwards” when it comes to sports viewing.

“It used to be that you bought a subscription, your cable subscription, and you had pretty much everything they had. Now there are so many different subscriptions, so I think that needs to be fixed,” Cue said during a panel in October.

Since MLS launched its media rights deal with Apple, there has been little information on how the Season Pass has performed and some skepticism about its success.

However, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in an interview with CNBC Sport last year that Apple Season Pass subscriptions had exceeded expectations but declined to provide specific numbers.

“We have more subscribers than Apple and we thought,” Garber told CNBC at the time, adding that more transparency would be provided at a later date.

Apple also doesn’t release Apple TV’s numbers, but Cue reportedly He said the platform had “more than 45 million” viewers.

Once MLS completes its 30th season, there will be greater access to the league. The company is working to capitalize on the rise in soccer’s popularity in the United States, especially ahead of next year’s World Cup in North America.

The league, which pales in comparison to the popularity of the NFL, NBA and other professional sports in the US, which existed for decades before MLS, has also seen fandom grow in recent years after global superstar Lionel Messi began playing for Inter Miami CF.

On Thursday, MLS made another big change. announced He said he would change his calendar to match that of global football leagues.

MLS’s fall postseason coincided with one of the busiest times in the United States; It’s the start of the NFL, NBA and NHL seasons and the heart of MLB’s postseason, which has recently garnered high viewership.

This change will also allow MLS teams to more seamlessly participate in the worldwide player transfer window over the summer.

“Participation in the most active transfer window will now enhance, rather than disrupt, the team’s ambitions for the season,” according to a news release.

Currently, MLS’ regular season schedule runs from February to October, followed by the playoffs and then the championship game in December. MLS will adopt the new calendar starting in the summer of 2027.