MLS and Apple are preparing to enter the second year of their $2.5 billion broadcast rights deal, but one thing that stands out from year one has been the lack of availability of viewership numbers.
As part of the deal the league struck with the tech giant, Apple TV+ became the home to nearly all MLS action in the United States.
But according to Jonathan Tannenwald of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the league and Apple continue to keep concrete numbers close to the vest.
“Every metric that we’ve had, we exceeded,” MLS executive vice president of media Seth Bacon said last week at a league media festival. “From a subscription standpoint, we blew by, more than doubled, what we thought would happen. And we met a lot of those goals even before (Lionel) Messi got here.”
But since streaming audiences aren’t measured in the same ways that television audiences, Bacon said MLS is constantly trying to fine tune.
“It’s something that we continue to work with Apple and all of our partners to make sure we understand them,” he said. “But it’s a different language that we have to speak now than when you’re dealing with linear (TV) and Nielsen.”
Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue said last November that more than a million viewers tuned in to some of the biggest MLS games last season, including Messi suiting up for Inter Miami later in the season.
Some MLS games did air on TV last season, and those linear broadcasts averaged 340,000 viewers. Last year’s MLS Cup Final averaged 890,000 between FOX and FOX Deportes.
