Apple and Comcast partner to make Major League Soccer matches easier to watch

Major League Soccer and Apple announced details of this year’s MLS Season Pass streaming package on Wednesday. And this time, the details weren’t just about MLS and Apple.

After two years of making fans pay through Apple to get the package, it will now be available through traditional cable and satellite TV subscribers to Comcast Xfinity and DirecTV. You’ll still have to pay for it, but at least now you can pay through those platforms and have games directly integrated into your cable and satellite boxes like other sports.

That should help fans, including those in Comcast’s hometown of Philadelphia, who have found MLS matches difficult to access in the Apple era.

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With Comcast, subscribers can sign up for the MLS package directly through their accounts on Xfinity’s website. Games will appear in all the places where you see sports schedules, just like with other sports. They’ll also be on the channel guide in X1 boxes, on the Xfinity Stream app, and on Flex streaming boxes. The streaming app access could help users of Android devices, since the Apple TV app for that platform doesn’t work on every phone.

Comcast will offer a free trial of MLS Season Pass for cable subscribers from Feb. 22 to March 2, the first two weekends of the season. That means the Union’s first two games of the season, the Feb. 22 opener at Orlando City and the March 1 home opener vs. FC Cincinnati, will be free for all Comcast cable subscribers with X1 boxes.

Additionally, Comcast subscribers can watch the MLS 360 whiparound show on Saturday nights, with live look-ins at games in progress, without having to pay for an additional Apple subscription. That includes not just MLS Season Pass, but the separate Apple TV+ package, which includes the company’s movies and baseball broadcasts.

It’s the first time MLS and Apple have offered live game coverage to subscribers of any non-Apple TV or streaming platform since striking a deal two years ago.

As for DirecTV subscribers, MLS games will show up on actual TV channels with numbers 480-495, like the satellite platform’s other sports packages. The platform will offer a free trial from Feb. 22 to March 1.

Comcast and DirecTV customers will be able to connect subscriptions bought through their boxes to the Apple TV app to watch games that way. MLS and Apple’s announcement didn’t say exactly how, but it’s a helpful touch.

The cost of the package has not changed from last year: $99 for the year or $14.99 per month, and $79 for the year or $12.99 per month if you already have Apple TV+.

If you have T-Mobile cell phone service, you can get MLS Season Pass for free for the year starting Feb. 18, and watch it through Apple’s apps. Access will be through a coupon in the provider’s T-Life phone app. T-Mobile offered Season Pass for free in 2023, the package’s first season, then did not last year.

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Finally, MLS has expanded its scheduling of Sunday games in exclusive windows to give those games more promotion — something a lot of fans clamored for in the last two years. Those games will be available on Apple TV+, not just MLS Season Pass, giving them expanded distribution as well.

In a call with media on Wednesday, executives from Apple and MLS spoke glowingly about wanting to grow the audiences for their product, and how these moves will do that. There have been questions about whether the audiences haven’t been as big as hoped for since the Apple deal started. Seth Bacon, MLS executive vice president of media, was asked Wednesday and unsurprisingly only talked about positives.

“We’ve seen growth in our audiences. We’ve seen growth in subscriptions,” he answered. “We’re bullish on what we’re building, and it’s how do you take something that’s performing really well and make it perform even better? That’s what these new distribution partnerships are all about.”

Neither Bacon nor anyone else from MLS or Apple on the call offered specific numbers to prove those claims. That has been Apple’s custom since the start of the deal, and it doesn’t seem likely to change.

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Though the expanded distribution of broadcasts is good news for fans, not all of Wednesday’s news was good. As part of changes to the behind-the-scenes production of games, this year will see some games called remotely from studios instead of in stadiums.

“The overwhelming majority of our matches will be produced fully on-site,” Bacon said.

But when the news got out Wednesday afternoon, fans reacted with a storm of criticism.

MLS and Apple have moved their studio shows to Stamford, Conn., from the New York location they’d had for the last two years. The new studios are in facilities owned by WWE.

Bacon said game production will be done remotely from there and from facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where production partners IMG and NEP have a base. The Fort Lauderdale facility will be the base for remote broadcasters. (The NWSL and USL use the same place for their remote broadcasts.)

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“I think the experience for fans will not be any different,” Bacon said. “The way that you can have announcers call a game remotely now is different than it was in the past. They’re seeing all the feeds. They’re seeing the entire field. They’re able to talk to people on-site. They’re able to interview people ahead of time.”

The “seeing the entire field” line addressed what has long been the biggest challenge with calling soccer off monitors. When a goal is scored, broadcasters immediately look to the assistant referee on the nearest sideline to see if the offside flag is up, but the cameras don’t show that to viewers at home. If the broadcasters can’t see the official either, they might get the call wrong.

The roster of broadcasters for this year is expected to be announced in a few weeks.