Starting in 2026, all Major League Soccer (MLS) games will be shown directly on Apple TV, tech giant Apple’s (AAPL) main streaming service. This is a big change from how fans currently watch matches through a separate subscription called Season Pass, which was launched in 2023 after Apple and MLS signed a 10-year media rights deal in 2022. Season Pass was Apple’s dedicated service for MLS games, and cost $14.99 per month, slightly more than Apple TV’s $12.99 subscription. Even though Apple never shared subscription numbers, MLS Deputy Commissioner Gary Stevenson said that fans liked the service.
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Interestingly, the idea to move everything to Apple TV came from Apple itself, as the platform gained more users. Stevenson said that the league was fully supportive of the change and confirmed that some parts of the original deal were updated, though not drastically. The main goal, he explained, was to improve the fan experience by making MLS more accessible and easier to watch. In fact, Apple has been steadily expanding its sports content, and this move follows a similar deal with Formula 1 (FWONK).
Moreover, Apple executives have criticized how complicated sports streaming has become, as fans need several subscriptions just to follow one sport. This led Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior VP of Services, to recently say that the market has “gone backwards” compared to the days when one cable subscription covered everything. While MLS and Apple haven’t shared Season Pass performance data publicly, MLS Commissioner Don Garber previously said subscriptions had exceeded expectations.
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