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Apple TV+ MLS Season Pass Review

By Jaime Broitman

INDIO, CA - FEBRUARY 11: A detailed general view of the MLS logo on the red sleeve of a Toronto FC player along with the Apple TV logo - Apple and Major League Soccer present all MLS matches around the world for 10 years, beginning in 2023 during the MLS Pre-Season 2023 Coachella Valley Invitational match between Toronto FC v LAFC at Empire Polo Club on February 11, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)
INDIO, CA - FEBRUARY 11: A detailed general view of the MLS logo on the red sleeve of a Toronto FC player along with the Apple TV logo - Apple and Major League Soccer present all MLS matches around the world for 10 years, beginning in 2023 during the MLS Pre-Season 2023 Coachella Valley Invitational match between Toronto FC v LAFC at Empire Polo Club on February 11, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images) /
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With the start of the new MLS Season there were some changes. For starters, the league switched from having every game on regional TV channels like MSG Network to be almost exclusively be streaming. With this change in broadcasting there was the inception of MLS 360, a RedZone-like channel for all the games. My review of this service isn’t that great and there could be major changes. So here is my Apple TV+ Season Pass Review.

The Good

All the games are now centralized on one channel with no blackouts. This was an issue sometimes when ESPN owned the streaming rights as there would be local blackouts for the market. There is also more analysis on the matches. In addition to the analysis, there are original shows detailing everything about the MLS teams and also its affiliates. It also makes it easier to see on the go as it connects easily to apple devices. There is also a lot of exclusive content like interviews, previews, and also matches in MLS NEXT with a higher standard than that of ELEVEN.

The Bad

The first bad part is that it is on Apple TV+. Android or PC users have to download an emulator in order to stream the games on their devices, cutting the viewership down drastically. The second and most important is the fact that there are ads for a premium product. For a product that costs $40 or $50 a season there should not be any ads, for the product to make sense maybe there would be a cheaper option. Maybe a $20/season and have ads and then a higher price point for a no ad version.

For example currently I have a subscription to TDMax which is a service that I use when I want to see Costa Rican soccer games. This service lets me see the home games of at least seven out of the twelve teams in the first division and some of the second division as they are the exclusive owners of the rights. Moreover, I can also watch the national team games that do not involve the United States or Mexico as HBO owns the USMNT rights and Univision/TUDN/ Telemundo own the rights of the Mexican National team games. I can also watch anything that Teletica produces as well. I pay about $7/month and I get all of these amenities as well as being able to watch on multiple devices.

My verdict

There is a lot of positives but at the same time there needs to be improvements. For me, had T-Mobile not given me a free code to stream this, I would not use it.

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