A report this week in The Athletic mentions that Major League Soccer is facing several obstacles in its negotiations ahead of the media rights deal. Time is running out for MLS, whose Commissioner Don Garber recently said that the deal would be announced by the end of March 2022.
Up until recently, Major League Soccer has been very confident of a major deal including reports of the league expecting $300 million per year for the rights. But given the reporting in The Athletic, the league still has a long way to go to get anywhere close to reaching that goal.
At the same time that Major League Soccer is continuing discussions with a long list of broadcasters, soccer fans will have their preferred choice of who should get the rights. Not that soccer fans are involved in the decision making, but it’s often interesting to better understand which networks soccer fans prefer.
So, our question to you is this:
If you had to pick just one, which broadcaster would you like to see winning the English-language rights to MLS for 2023 and beyond?
That is not who you think will win, but who you want to win.
Currently, out of all of the soccer leagues broadcasting the sport in the United States, Major League Soccer is one of the most complicated and expensive to watch. Are you interested in continuing with the status quo, or would you like to see wholesale changes?
Let us know by completing the poll embedded below. Thanks in advance for your input.
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Tex
March 27, 2022 at 5:58 pm
Get some talent in the More-or-less Soccer League and we can talk.
Estevan Saucedo
March 26, 2022 at 10:10 pm
Also if you do stay with ESPN make all games available on ESPN+ not just certain ones and have us pay for cable to see 1 or 2 games on regular ESPN.
Estevan Saucedo
March 26, 2022 at 10:04 pm
Apple TV!!!!!!!! Most convenient, affordable and don’t need cable package aside.
Estevan Saucedo
March 26, 2022 at 10:11 pm
Also MLB has agreed to some deal with Apple TV as well so for those who aren’t subscribe would benefit from MLB games as well.
Mercator
March 25, 2022 at 9:43 pm
Apple TV+. Its $5 bucks and presumably you would get absolutely everything. ESPN+ is great but an ESPN/ESPN+ split is not great at all, you shouldn’t need a full cable package or cable ESPN to watch the games. Amazon would be great as well, but the rest would rip you off.
Ross
March 24, 2022 at 11:32 pm
FOX already said they are not interested renewing any sort of deal with MLS after this season.
Christopher Harris
March 25, 2022 at 8:13 am
They never said that.
jason
March 24, 2022 at 12:12 pm
Easy one. ESPN plus. Thats what I got right now. Only thing I dont like about ESPN Plus is that La Liga sucks and its a waste of money and space. Much better when they had Serie A and SPFL last year.
JP
March 24, 2022 at 11:08 am
Really surprised the Leagues Cup isn’t garnering more interest from broadcasters (based on articles). The tournament would come at a time when MLS has relatively little sports competition and when most non soccer 1st fans might check it out.
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Read that ESPN would only be interested if they could get Spanish rights too, which makes sense. As we’ve seen with UCL many will choose to watch OTA via Univision rather than pay for English language rights…plus there might be more interest for some matches in Spanish speaking households too. Getting the rights to both is almost a must for any league/competition when Spanish will be available OTA if English and Spanish rights are split
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For that reason, the networks should be trying to outbid Univision (Televisa?) and get both, not take their ball and go home when faced with competition.
Jon
March 24, 2022 at 10:34 am
MLS is easy to watch on ESPN +, i don’t understand all th fuss. Keep games on streaming platforms, it’s a nightmare having to get cable tv or futmob or sling for astronomical prices.
Ross
March 24, 2022 at 12:45 am
I’d like to see Apple TV+ since I’m already a subscriber. I have HBO so I’d be okay with that one too. What I’m wanting is a streamer who will invest in 4k cameras to broadcast in native 4k. I think we are a ways from that though. Streaming is the future and I would like to see this get built on like we’ve seen with Friday night baseball and Thursday night football.
Mario Garcia
March 23, 2022 at 11:05 pm
Either Paramount+ (which is already a must have with all their soccer rights), ESPN+ or HBO Max (The last two I’m not subscriber at the moment, but MLS will add enough weight to make it worth)
Fechin
March 23, 2022 at 9:11 pm
Turner sports since they don’t have much on weekends. Wished they can even show sports on their local channel TheCW that would be perfect for MLS. I think the MLS on ESPN is holding the MLS back because they aren’t a main factor for ESPN. I like ESPN+ tho but I think it’s time to move on. Hbo and discovery need sports and competition from other networks could be good but price wise to subscribe to another service probably not. Apple TV+ is a dark horse pick.
SteveK
March 23, 2022 at 7:06 pm
What I wonder is will the rights fee end up being more or less than what ESPN paid for La Liga which is 175 million per year?
dave
March 23, 2022 at 10:34 pm
@SteveK, good question. I watch only a little MLS, but I was bullish on their prospects. Two things I thought of as significant value-adds (Leagues Cup and all local games) are reportedly of very low interest to English bidders. Ending around 175 million per year for a greatly expanded package of MLS and Leagues Cup games seems a discouraging outcome. We will know soon, I suppose.
UnitedFan 3478
March 23, 2022 at 6:30 pm
Definitely not Fox, because they want to focus on national teams
UnitedFan 3478
March 23, 2022 at 6:28 pm
Definitely Turner Sports, to go along with the USMNT/USWNT rights
Ra
March 23, 2022 at 6:05 pm
AppleTV+, which I do not subscribe to. I am not willing to pay anything for it, directly or indirectly.
Eddie
March 23, 2022 at 5:51 pm
ESPN/ESPN+. Widest reach and means that I don’t have to add yet another streaming service that I don’t already have.
KW
March 23, 2022 at 4:48 pm
I don’t really mind the status quo here in Philly as I get most matches on the antenna and online for free in my market and we have a good broadcast booth in JP Dellacamera and Danny Higginbotham. But I hope the new deal is with a service where you can watch all the matches without having a cable package. I don’t want to spend $50+ per month for MLS.
I know in some other markets you need to be subscribers of the local cable sports network in order to watch the matches. I don’t think that having those barriers to become a casual fan is good for growing the sport.
Eric O Casares
March 24, 2022 at 12:25 am
Foxsports would be great as they are popular and relatively inexpensive.
Blue Lou
March 23, 2022 at 4:37 pm
ESPN so I can continue to get the online package as part of ESPN+. Forcing me to sign up for a new streaming service is about the same thing as telling me to just go out and locate pirated streams for the games I want to see.
Jasinho
March 23, 2022 at 4:17 pm
Turner Sports due to minimal conflicts on the weekends