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| Developer | Apple Inc. |
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| Launch date | February 1, 2023 (2 years ago) (2023-02-01)[1] |
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| Pricing model | |
| Website | www |
MLS Season Pass is asoccerstreaming service operated byApple Inc. which includes live matches fromMajor League Soccer (MLS). The package was launched in the2023 Major League Soccer season as part of a new 10-year media rights agreement between MLS and Apple, under which it holds the globalover-the-top streaming rights to the league.
MLS Season Pass is a subscription-based service on theApple TV app, which carries live coverage of all MLS regular season and playoff matches, as well as coverage of theLeagues Cup, selectedMLS Next andMLS Next Pro matches, studio programs, and other video content (including match replays and original programming). Under the new contracts, regionally televised matches have been discontinued, hence all matches stream globally with noblackout restrictions.
A selection of matches each week are available to stream for free without a subscription. A non-exclusivelinear television package of matches was sold toFox Sports in the United States andBell Media in Canada. In 2025, MLS began to distribute MLS Season Pass to consumers via selected television providers in the United States.
MLS had requested that its teams not negotiate regional television rights to their matches beyond the 2022 season, suggesting that the league was considering switching to a centralized model for its media rights (more akin to theNational Football League and European club leagues such as thePremier League) after its present national television agreements withESPN,Fox Sports, andUnivision expire at the same time.[2][3]
On June 14, 2022, MLS announced a 10-year broadcasting deal withApple Inc. taking effect in the 2023 season, under which it would hold the globalover-the-top media rights to the league. It marked the second major foray by Apple into professional sports rights, after having launchedMajor League Baseball'sFriday Night Baseball earlier that year.[4][5]
The name and United States pricing of the service was announced on November 16, 2022, with availability beginning February 1, 2023, for the start of the season on February 25, 2023.[6][7][8][9]
To maintain a presence onlinear television, MLS reached four-year, non-exclusive rights agreements withFox Sports (United States forFox andFox Deportes) andBell Media (Canada forTSN andRDS) to carry packages of MLS matches on their networks. The contract ended the league's long-term associations with ESPN and Univision; ESPN had been one of Major League Soccer's main media partners since its inception. Univision continued to televise selectLeagues Cup matches, including exclusive linear coverage of the final.[10][11][12] ESPN and Univision reportedly declined to renew their contracts due to objections to aspects of the Apple contract, as both companies also operate competing streaming platforms (ESPN+—which previously held out-of-market streaming rights—andVix, respectively), and they would no longer hold exclusive rights to the matches they televise.[13][11][14]
In 2024, MLS Season Pass reached an agreement withU.S. Soccer to air the quarterfinals, semifinals and final of the2024 U.S. Open Cup.[15]
For the2025 Major League Soccer season, MLS Season Pass announced plans to airSunday Night Soccer, a primetime Sunday game each week that is available to all Apple TV+ subscribers.[16]
MLS Season Pass is sold on a subscription basis via theApple TV app, either monthly or per-season; the U.S. price was set atUS$14.99 per month[17] or $99 per season. MLS Season Pass is separate from and does not require anApple TV+ subscription, but discounts are available to Apple TV+ subscribers.Season ticketholders of MLS teams also receive MLS Season Pass for free.[6][7][18] A selection of matches throughout the 2023 season would stream free-of-charge; during the opening weekend of the 2023 season, all matches streamed for free, while at least six matches per-week were scheduled during the first weeks of the season afterward. Later weeks had as few as two free matches.[19]
As it did forAmazon Prime Video'sThursday Night Football in the NFL,DirecTV acquired rights to distribute MLS Season Pass for its commercial subscribers, ensuring the matches' availability to venues (such as bars and restaurants) not readily equipped to handle streaming-only broadcasts.[20] A one-year subscription to MLS Season Pass was offered byT-Mobile US to their subscribers in February 2023 through theT-Mobile Tuesdays app.[21] A similar offer was introduced in June 2023 byOptus Sport, a sports channel in Australia.[22] From the 2025 season, DirecTV renewed its rights to distribute MLS Season Pass for multiple seasons; with the renewal, the provider added the right to distribute the package to residential customers. A similar agreement was also reached withComcast to distribute the service viaXfinity; as part of the agreement, all Xfinity subscribers are also given access to theMLS 360 whiparound show.[23][16][24]
MLS Season Pass carries all MLS regular season and playoff matches live and on-demand, and is the exclusive carrier of all matches not otherwise sub-licensed to a linear broadcaster. It also carries allLeagues Cup matches, and selectedMLS Next andMLS Next Pro matches.[4][5] As teams can no longer sell packages of matches for regional broadcasts, there are henceforth noblackouts of out-of-market matches.[5][18]
All MLS telecasts are produced in-house by the league as part of a joint venture betweenIMG andNEP Group. All MLS matches aired by MLS Season Pass are produced in1080phigh definition with5.1 surround sound, and utilize "enhanced data elements".[25][26] Match commentary is available inEnglish andSpanish, as well asFrench for matches involving Canadian teams (CF Montréal,Toronto FC,Vancouver Whitecaps FC). Local radio broadcasts are also available as an option.[8]
MLS Season Pass produces three studio shows; the pre-match showMLS Countdown,MLS 360 (which carries "whiparound" coverage of each Saturday matchday), and the highlights showMLS Wrap-Up.[26] The studio programs were originally produced at NEP Group's Metropolis Studios, a 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) studio inManhattan,New York City, with adjacent facilities for English and Spanish control rooms. The video feeds are transmitted to an NEP Groupdata center in Dallas for encoding and distributed from an Apple facility inVan Nuys, California.[27] The service also offers on-demand content such as classic matches, team-produced videos and original series, such asThe Ritual, a docuseries about the fan cultures of Major League Soccer teams.[5][8]
MLS Productions relocated to studios at theStamford, Connecticut headquarters ofWWE (owned by publicly tradedEndeavor subsidiaryTKO Group Holdings) in 2025, consolidating both MLS Season Pass production and other in-house media production previously conducted from the MLS headquarters. The new facilities also enabled more centralization of production for matches, such as graphics (allowing for feeds to be customized with dedicated graphics for specific languages such as Spanish), and a small number of matches being produced remotely with aremote integration model (REMI) from NEP Vista (formerly Vista Worldlink) studios in Florida using off-site commentators.[28][16]
MLS Season Pass uses an in-house staff of commentary teams, with specific commentators often assigned to matches on a regional basis to reduce travel, and provide familiarity to viewers.[29][30][31][32]
According to theSports Business Journal, the service had surpassed one million subscribers in July 2023, including free subscriptions to T-Mobile customers and team season ticket members, critics attributed the spike to the high-profile signing ofLionel Messi byInter Miami CF.[33][34] Data collected by analytics company Antenna found a major spike in subscriptions for Messi's debut match for Miami, with 110,000 new subscriptions in the United States alone.[35]
Before the 2025 MLS All-Star Game on July 23, 2025, MLS Commissioner Don Garber stated that MLS Season Pass was receiving an average of 120,000 viewers per match, which he said was a "an increase of over 50%" compared to the prior season.[36][37]