The 30th MLS season is underway, and the league has rewarded fans with one free month of MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. The league’s tricenial season is the third under the pro soccer league’s 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple, bringing viewers across the globe every single MLS game without any blackouts.
For the 2025 season, MLS and Apple have introduced Sunday Night Soccer, which spotlights a marquee primetime featured matchup each week to help expand the league’s visibility with fans. Additionally, this is the first season that MLS fans with Android devices can watch along on the Apple TV app. With the addition of the Apple TV app launch on Android, over a billion devices in 100 countries now have unprecedented access to the annual Leagues Cup tournament, Campeones Cup, MLS All-Star Game, Audi MLS Cup Playoffs games, and select MLS NEXT Pro matches without blackout restrictions.
Even with the expanded accessibility, the majority of MLS games are behind a paywall, and some MLS executives have reportedly pushed to ditch the Apple TV deal. One GM stated that the league was “innovative” with its push towards streaming but still sees the importance of traditional TV: “I think we have to be on more linear outlets. We have to be on ABC, NBC, Fox more regularly because I think a lot more people watched our games when we were in that space.” It is worth noting that the Athletic reported that Apple has an “opt-out” clause if subscriber numbers aren’t met within a time frame.
In an interview with the Inquirer MLS executive vice president of media Seth Bacon noted that the league may have been early with its adaptation to streaming, but echoed the importance of linear TV: “But if we were a little early, we wanted to have some of those linear windows that still offered that broad linear distribution to noncore fans, to general sports fans.” He continued, “To attract them, to expose them to what’s happening with the league, and to get them curious and more engaged.”
Currently, in the United States, MLS is in Year 3 of a four-year deal with Fox, which airs 34 regular-season matches annually on linear TV. As part of the Fox deal, at least 15 games air free over-the-air on the Fox network and the remainder on FS1. Additionally, Fox Sports broadcasts eight playoff matches and the MLS Cup championship game each season. All these matches are also available in Spanish on Fox Deportes.
Notably, the MLS season currently begins in February and concludes with the MLS Cup in December, but the league has recently announced that after the 2026 World Cup, it may change its schedule to match international soccer (July/August through May/June).
Sunday Night Soccer & Potential Linear TV Partners
In several international markets, MLS has inked agreements to bring its flagship Sunday Night Soccer matches to linear TV. Last month, Australia was the first international market to receive broadcast rights since the Apple TV deal began. Now, viewers in Germany, Malta, the Middle East, Israel, southeast Asia, and South Korea can all find the best MLS matches each Sunday night on traditional TV.
With Bacon acknowledging the importance of linear TV for the league’s continued growth and the expansion of those international deals, it begs the question of if or when Sunday Night Soccer will come to linear TV in the United States. Here are five potential media players that could score a goal with MLS rights.
Reuniting With ESPN
ESPN is no stranger to MLS, as the network had broadcast rights from the league’s inception in 1996 to 2022. Beginning next year, ESPN will have an opening for Sunday night programming after it was reported that the network declined to renew its rights to MLB Sunday Night Baseball after 35 years. ESPN was paying $550 million per season for its baseball rights and reportedly wanted to reduce it to no more than $200 million.
With the loss of Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN could look for programming from different leagues to fill the void. The network currently has rights to the WNBA, which could be seen as the most likely candidate to replace baseball. However, ESPN could feasibly renew its relationship with MLS and air Sunday Night Soccer for far less than what they were paying for MLB.
Joining U.S. Soccer on TNT/TBS/truTV (WBD)
Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear networks of TNT, TBS, and truTV could strengthen its lineup of sports with the addition of MLS games. The network won’t air NBA games beyond this season as the league has reunited with NBC and welcomed Amazon Prime Video. TNT Sports is the home of U.S. Soccer after securing an eight-year deal that began in 2023. A deal with MLS would strengthen a sports lineup that features NHL, MLB, college football, college basketball, NASCAR, AEW, and the French Open.
Joining the NWSL on ION
Mostly known for its lineup of women’s sports that include the WNBA and the NWSL, ION would be a sleeper pick. NWSL matches air on ION every Saturday night, and the league is looking to sell another package of games, which would include Sunday nights. However, if the network were to add MLS, it could pair Sunday Night Soccer with NWSL games as a programming block. ION TV reaches over 100 million homes through both over-the-air and pay TV platforms, which would give MLS a national linear TV platform.
The Dark Horse: CW Sports
Over the last few years, The CW has quietly expanded its sports offerings. Since 2023, the network has aired LIV Golf, NASCAR, WWE NXT, college football and basketball featuring the ACC and Pac-12, track & field, and AVP Beach Volleyball. The CW has an OTA reach of 100% of households in the US, which makes it a bigger OTA network than ION and in more homes than the aforementioned WBD networks.
Back in February, the network announced Michael Perman as Senior Vice President of Sports. Perman has over 20 years of sports programming experience and formerly served as the Vice President of Programming for NBC Sports Group, where he oversaw acquisitions, program planning, and scheduling for NBC and NBCSN.
“I am thrilled to be able to deliver first-class sports programming across The CW’s ubiquitously available broadcast and digital platforms while fostering strong and enduring relationships within the sports world,” said Mr. Perman in a statement. “Together, we will continue to transform the network into a premier destination for fans, offering dynamic live sporting events and engaging programming.”
Adding MLS games to its lineup would give CW Sports another major league and help strengthen programming on the free CW app.
Expanding the Fox Package
Since 2003, Fox Sports has been home to live MLS games, but it only has one more year in its current deal with the league. Fox has thousands of hours of sports programming under its umbrella, including the NFL, UFL, MLB, NASCAR, IndyCar, and others. But with plans to launch a standalone streaming service later this year, adding more live events could be a fruitful strategy.
Fans who watch the MLS on Fox are familiar with the network’s linear channels, and if the MLS decides to bring Sunday Night Soccer to linear TV in the US, airing select games on Fox would continue providing the league exposure. Combined with FS1, FS2, and Fox Deportes, Fox offers a wide lineup of available channels.
However, with the Apple TV deal, the MLS lost nearly 50% of its viewership for the 2024 MLS Cup compared to 2023, per Sports Business Journal. In 2023, Fox linear networks had a reported combined viewership of 468,000, down 47% from the combined linear audience of 890,000 across the same channels in 2023.
The 2024 MLS Cup was also streamed for free on Apple TV, and those viewership numbers were not made publicly available. Notably, in 2022, before the Apple TV began, that year’s MLS Cup drew a combined 2.16 million viewers across ABC (English) and Univision/TUDN (Spanish), per the SBJ report. That figure was the second-highest in MLS Cup history since the league began in 1996. From 2018 through 2021, SBJ reported that those MLS Cup games averaged between 1.27 million and 1.77 million viewers each across English and Spanish channels.
MLS hasn’t commented on plans to bring Sunday Night Soccer to linear TV in the United States. As for now, soccer fans can stream live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, which starts at $12.99 per month. For a limited time, new and existing subscribers can get one month of MLS Season Pass for free at the link below.
