Apple makes biggest sports rights bet so far on 10-year, £2bn Major League Soccer deal
Apple has agreed to pay $2.5bn (£2.1bn) for the global streaming rights to Major League Soccer for the next 10 years.
The deal with the top division of men’s football in the US and Canada represents the tech giant’s biggest investment in sports rights so far.
Apple, which bought a package of Major League Baseball rights in March, will show all games in MLS on its Apple TV platform. Most will only be available for subscribers to a new dedicated package.
“This is a 10-year partnership,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “Not a media rights deal — it’s a partnership.
“This is a great financial deal for Major League Soccer that satisfies our goals.
“This is going to give us the rocket fuel that we need to elevate our league and capitalize on the momentum that we already have.”
It is understood that MLS is still free to sell some games for broadcast on linear TV networks.
The value is already major increase on the $90m (£75m) a year that the league currently earns for its media rights.
It remains dwarfed by those of the top sports competitions, however. The NFL’s latest deal is worth more than $10bn (£8.3m) a year, the Premier League now earns £3.5bn a year and cricket’s Indian Premier League just fetched $1bn (£830m) a year in the subcontinent alone.
As part of its deal Apple has also committed to increasing coverage of MLS on its Apple News app.
“For the first time in the history of sports, fans will be able to access everything from a major professional sports league in one place,” said Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue.
“We can’t wait to make it easy for even more people to fall in love with MLS and root for their favourite club.”