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Apple TV's MLS Season Pass subscriptions doubled since Messi's arrival in US
- FacZap 3y agoLionel Messi might be the biggest sport star in history. It's amazing what this man does for people.
- hnburnsy 3y agoDoes every headline have to lie? Viewers is different than subscriptions... From the article... >On top of that, subscriptions to Apple TV's MLS Season Pass have more than doubled since the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star started plying his trade in the US in July. >That's according to Jorge Mas, one of Inter Miami's owners. Mas added that "Spanish language viewership on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV has surpassed over 50 percent for Messi matches and continues to rise," underscoring the player's popularity in the Spanish-speaking community. Apple CEO Tim Cook retweeted Mas' comments, indicating that Mas' claims are genuine (Apple's PR team has been drawing attention to the tweet as well). 1. 50% is not doubling 2. It says Spanish language 3. Viewers do not equal subscriptions 4. For Messi matches not all matches There is no evidence on subscriptions doubling, SBJ says it went from 700,000 to 1 million but that includes free subscriptions for season ticket holders.
- gshulegaard 3y agoIf you followed the source that is cited/linked in the quote you copied you would have found: > The Messi Effect is real! Subscribers to #MLSSeasonPass on @AppleTV have more than doubled since Messi joined @InterMiamiCF. Also, Spanish language viewership on #MLSSeasonPass on @AppleTV has surpassed over 50% for Messi matches and continues to rise. How exciting for a truly global fan base! https://twitter.com/Jorge__Mas/status/1689758782828556288 https://twitter.com/Jorge__Mas/status/1689758782828556288
- jdminhbg 3y ago"Mas added" indicates that it's a new topic, not support for the previous topic.
- criddell 3y agoI wish MLB would take some notes one what a good streaming service looks like. If you want to watch all the baseball games you need an MLB.tv subscription, a premium cable subscription, a Peacock subscription, a regional sports network subscription (it’s Bally Sports where I am), and an Apple TV subscription. Please give me an everything tier in MLB.tv! I’ll gladly pay more. On top of that MLB.tv is brutal to watch because they have a lot of ad spots and only a few advertisers so you see the same ads over-and-over-and-over again.
- hnburnsy 3y agoFor MLB that is a feature not a bug!
- teruakohatu 3y agoIn my country rugby is declining and football (soccer) is increasing in popularity. I would imagine MLB has little growth opportunity in the USA, unlike soccer, so they have little incentive to improve the experience.
- atonse 3y agoI think you're right but it's also a fascinating commentary on the times where a sport that's been quintessentially American (baseball) is probably at all time lows with popularity while highly international sports (F1, Soccer) are finally seeing growth here.
- ghaff 3y agoIt's probably a complicated story. At least suburban kids play soccer rather than baseball/softball (or even American football) growing up these days. I imagine basketball is still pretty popular especially in cities. F1 vs. NASCAR? Don't really know the numbers--obviously that's a sport that most viewers never participated in. Although I played it in college, rugby has always been at least something out of the mainstream in most places.
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- veave 3y ago"more than doubled" could mean from 1 to 3 subscribers :P
- wslh 3y agoThe article clearly says: "The company hasn't disclosed how many subscribers the service has, though reports in July suggested the number was nearing 1 million before Messi's arrival. In any case, Apple is evidently pleased by Messi's impact on MLS Season Pass.". So it seems like 2 millions is closer to the truth than 3.
- jetti 3y agoI did a trial of Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass in May, which was about 2 months into the MLS season, and I cancelled within 20 minutes. The UX of the app is terrible. I didn't want to watch live matches but wanted to watch previous matches in the season but in order to do so I would have to find the match on the screen and then click on it and then scroll down and click a button to actually watch the match. That doesn't seem too bad except that on the thumbnail of the match they show the final score and then when you click into the match before you are able to actually watch the replay they show the final score. It took the whole purpose of being able to watch previous matches away. I am sticking to watching NWSL on Paramount+.
- selykg 3y agoOn AppleTV devices you can goto Settings > Apps > TV and then uncheck the "Show Sports Scores" I believe that will prevent what you were talking about.
- jetti 3y agoInteresting. I will check the settings on the app itself but I was watching on a Fire TV Stick
- sjm-lbm 3y agoAs an MLS fan that bought the season pass as soon as it was announced, I can't agree more. Honestly Apple should be embarrassed, because the biggest problem with MLS Season Pass is the app and user experience. 1) On my TV, I'm consistently logged out of the app between uses. Logging in is annoying. I've sat down to watch games, hit this issue, and decided to just watch something else. I suspect that the issue here is my 2016-era LG TV, but everyone else's apps work fine. 2) When the app is working, it stutters a lot. This happens both on my TV and iPad, so I don't think this is just an app issue. 3) I have an Andriod phone, so there's no native app. More annoying log in experiences and poor video watching UX. 4) .. but on my Mac, where a website would be fine, I'm forced to use the Apple TV app to watch a game, which creates a slow and weird experience for no reason. I'm genuinely to the point that I might not bother to renew next year if they don't start to fix these issues. I sort of doubt they will, though, as several of these (say, not having an Android app) seem like deliberate decisions and have been issues with AppleTV+ for years.
- browningstreet 3y agoI watched the last Dallas/Miami match on AppleTV because it was free. No MLS subscription required. I do have to say — I watched one baseball game and one MLS game so far, and the commentators are 100% the worst. Constant conversation, constant drivel and often not about the game proceedings. They must’ve said “the best ever to play the game” about 1000x in 2 hours. I won’t ever pay for sports from Apple just on that point. This has been my “grumpy post of the day”.
- EstesPark 3y agoAs a long time MLS supporter (late 90's), I agree with you, however, every other aspect of the deal has been a significant improvement over the mix of ESPN+, FS1, ect. Not having blackouts, greatly improved streaming quality, single subscription, the pre- and post-match shows, global audience, added content, etc have taken the league to another level - to a point where we are even seeing the changes at one of the lowest payrolled clubs in the league in Colorado. Additionally, Apple played a big role in Messi signing with an MLS club. (Side note: found this in his Instagram bio being followed by 482 million people.. apple.co/mlsmessi) The main complaints I have seen are the commentary as well as lack of Android application. Other than those two items, people seem to be thrilled with the service so far.
- mateo- 3y ago100% this. I got MLB.tv free via T-mobile. It's not even worth the effort to figure out how to VPN out my AppleTV. I've watched 1 Mariners game this year, and it was because it was on Apple's Friday Night series. Whaddya know, make it easy to consume content, and people consume it.
- frutiger 3y agoI’m curious if the commentators were English or American (or neither)?
- EstesPark 3y agoFrom all over - it's a mix.
- lbsnake7 3y agoMLS has the same problem basketball leagues have overseas. The NBA is where the best players in the world play and I can watch it on TV, why would I watch a local sports league? There is some hometown pride from the diehards but casuals would watch the NBA. Similarly in soccer, I don’t think it is feasible to expect the MLS to break out of their niche. The casuals are watching the Premier League. We are now just watching the MLS figure out how big the niche can get.
- EstesPark 3y agoYou underestimate the reach of Messi. I lived in Italy for a large part of my adult life and had messages from friends there commenting on the Inter Miami replay which was being broadcast in a pub they were at. I don't personally believe the NBA comparison works well as you have global stars playing in leagues around the world - not just isolated to the premier league. A simple example is Mbappe is in France, Halland in England, Vinicius in Spain, and the heavy ballon d'or favorite in America. The Inter Miami Instagram account went from under a million followers to one of the most followed accounts in American sports - beating every NFL, NHL, and MLB team. I also think you underestimate how many people from the United States follow MLS. For example, Atlanta Uniteds 2022 average attendance was the second highest average attendance across sports in North and Central America. The 2022 numbers would put it at 8th highest average attendance in the premier league. The recent LA Galaxy vs LAFC match had an attendance of over 82k fans. For comparison, the 2018 Arsenal vs Spurs match at Wembly was played in front of 83k. Also, MLS sees the heaviest growth around the World Cup time period. Over the next four years you have massive tournaments being played in the United States from the 2023 Copa America to the World Cup.
- paxys 3y agoKinda meaningless unless that also share a number. Did it go from 1 to 2 or 1 million to 2 million?
- bobbyi 3y agoI wanted to get tickets to see Messi when his team (Inter Miami) comes to my area (NYC). This is a typical weekend NY Red Bulls game. Tickets are available for $10 : https://www.stubhub.com/new-york-red-bulls-harrison-tickets-8-20-2023/event/151300685/?quantity=2 https://www.stubhub.com/new-york-red-bulls-harrison-tickets-... This is the following weekend against Miami. Tickets start at more than $500 (~$650 with fees) : https://www.stubhub.com/new-york-red-bulls-harrison-tickets-8-26-2023/event/151300699/?quantity=2 https://www.stubhub.com/new-york-red-bulls-harrison-tickets-...
- Kon-Peki 3y agoMy understanding is that the MLS deal with Apple is worldwide - aside from a small handful of countries anyone can subscribe. It would be very interesting to get more info about the US vs non-US change in subscribers. The fact that they are saying that more than 50% of the viewers are choosing the Spanish audio feed suggests that much of the growth may not be in the US.
- EstesPark 3y agoThe United States has an estimated 57 million Spanish speakers, about 42 million being their native language - that's more than both Spain and Argentina. I'm unsure of how growth in Spanish broadcasting suggests it's not from within the United States. You also currently have the Leagues Cup being broadcast on AppleTV which is a one month tournament of every LigaMX (Mexico) and MLS (USA) club with a $40-million prize pool. My uneducated guess is that it's a mix of Leagues Cup, global superstars signing with MLS clubs, young stars such as Thiego Almada in Atlanta who just won a World Cup, and MLS beginning to overtake LigaMX in quality that is drawing more and more viewers recently - many of which are likely Spanish speaking. I'd point toward tonight's quarter-final elimination match against LAFC and Monterrey as an example that is likely to draw a ton of Spanish commentary views.
- frank_nitti 3y agoRight, and lot of good insight there. For some reason, headlines like these always make me think that soccer’s popularity is growing in communities where it hadn’t before. I imagine it is growing, but not at the rate I would incorrectly infer from the headline. Apple seems to be betting on that growth increasing.