Major League Soccer has revealed that its new subscription service through Apple TV will be called MLS Season Pass, and will launch on February 1.
The league and Apple came to a landmark media rights agreement in June in a deal worth $2.5 billion over 10 years, moving every MLS match in English and Spanish to what is now known as MLS Season Pass.
MLS Season Pass will be available on the Apple TV app for $14.99 per month during the season or $99 per season, and Apple TV+ subscribers can sign up for $12.99 per month and $79 per season.
Additionally, a subscription to MLS Season Pass will be included as part of full-season ticket packages with MLS clubs.
“We could not be more excited to bring our fans MLS Season Pass, a new home for all MLS matches and a wide variety of league and club content they can’t get anywhere else,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “We have the most engaged and passionate fans in sports, and now they’ll have every match everywhere with MLS Season Pass.”
The league’s move to a streaming service means it will no longer have to squeeze matches into broadcast windows for television. Instead, it will feature consistent match windows on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with pregame coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET and games mostly kicking off at 7:30 p.m. local time.
And as previously announced, MLS Season Pass will feature a live whip-around show during matchdays that will allow fans to catch every goal from every game.
St. Louis City unveils jerseys
As part of the league’s rollout for MLS Season Pass, expansion club St. Louis City has unveiled its home jersey for its inaugural season in 2023.
The kits feature an Apple TV sleeve patch, which each of the 29 MLS clubs will feature during the 2023 season.
More details forthcoming
The league is aiming to announce more details on the agreement in the months leading up to the 2023 season.
With all local TV deals expiring at the end of the 2022 season, MLS is bringing all production in-house, meaning the league is in the process of hiring dozens of announcers and studio analysts in English, Spanish and French. Announcements of talent hires will be made in the coming weeks.
MLS is also still in talks with several networks over a deal to show an as-yet-unknown number of games on TV, with an announcement of a deal also expected in the lead-up to the 2023 season.
[lawrence-related id=3304,3295,9463]