Major League Soccer is ending the separate MLS Season Pass streaming subscription product, and instead will make its games available through the main Apple TV service beginning in 2026.
The shift marks a major recalibration of the groundbreaking, 10-year rights deal worth $2.5 billion that was originally struck in 2022, and went into effect the following year. League officials are looking to make the MLS matches more accessible and more in line with other sports content on the service, such as Formula One and Major League Baseball.
The change was approved Thursday by the MLS Board of Governors.
“Our partnership with Apple has always been about innovating for our fans,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “Bringing every match to Apple TV takes that vision to the next level by making it easier for fans everywhere to watch, connect, and be part of the game.”
The MLS Season Pass subscription had cost $14.99 per month, or $99 per season, or $79 on top of an Apple TV subscription. That standard Apple TV subscription fee is $12.99 per month, or $99 annually, but obviously has much more content.
Since the original Apple rights deal was struck, industry debate has been fervent about its impact and return. The agreement undoubtedly served as a bellwether for many other streaming-based deals in sports that followed, while also providing an expansive international footprint for MLS. The structure of this deal, however, also meant an initial and sizable retreat in exposure for the league compared to its prior, linear-based model in the U.S.
Speaking this past summer at the Front Office Sports Huddle in the Hamptons event, Garber said “media and pundits don’t get it yet,” but also stressed a need for accelerated progress in the consumer adoption of MLS matches on Apple.
Garber also said this past summer that MLS Season Pass viewership had grown by about half this season to an average of 120,000 per match. He also acknowledged, though, that a deal that has been largely shrouded in secrecy needed far better levels of transparency, and the audiences for those matches on Apple TV have not been part of any standard and audited measurement process.
“We and Apple believe we need to share more information,” Garber said. “It’s the beginning, not the end.”
