Apple TV had a heck of a debut season when it began carrying Major League Soccer in 2023 — thanks in no small part to living legend Lionel Messi joining Inter Miami. The service is trying to kick it up another notch as the new season starts on Wednesday.
The company added a few new features to the Apple TV interface to give fans faster access to the games, highlights, and personalized content. The biggest addition is bringing multiview, which it debuted last May for MLS Season Pass and “Friday Night Baseball,” to the iPad. Previously, it was a feature only available to those watching on an Apple TV 4K.
The ability to watch multiple games at once has proven to be a popular feature — YouTube TV offers a similar capability for its NFL Sunday Ticket and NBA games — so Apple was looking to capitalize. As with last season, viewers will be able to choose the games they want and which audio feed they want to listen to.
Live sports has played a much bigger role in streaming as companies aim to meet cord cutters where they are. Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google’s YouTube are paying a mint for the rights to carry high-profile games. Even traditional media, like NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Paramount+, are heavily promoting the games broadcast on their streaming services. Apple’s fledging TV service, which has far fewer content than its rivals, got a big boost last year with the MLS.
But Apple didn’t just start broadcasting the games. The company invested in expanding its Apple TV interface to offer more bells and whistles when streaming the games. It also made the service available widely beyond its own sweet of products, with the games available on a myriad of smart devices and televisions.
For this season, Apple has added a “supporter’s section” that creates a feed of the teams you favorite. It also presents a new row of soccer clubs for you to scan through or favorite, and there’s also a more scrollable menu of highlight clips from your favorite players. The service has also invested in more content, through podcasts and other related programming, to keep fans invested in the service on off-game days.
You can sign up for Apple TV service here and MLS Season Pass here.
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