Apple TV and MLS make sensible tradeoff with new ‘Sunday Night Soccer’ package

New for 2025, MLS Season Pass will broadcast a featured game of the week on Sunday evenings under the banner Sunday Night Soccer, with enhanced production and dedicated studio programming. These primetime games will air throughout the regular season and spotlight the league’s most compelling matchups. Sunday Night Soccer will include dedicated pre- and postgame shows, enhanced production and studio programming, and bespoke graphics in English and Spanish. All Sunday Night Soccer matches will also be available to stream free for Apple TV+ subscribers.
Sunday Night Soccer matches will feature broadcast talent on camera, with leading MLS Season Pass broadcasters Jake Zivin, Taylor Twellman, and Andrew Wiebe on the call for English broadcasts, and Sammy Sadovnik and Diego Valeri in Spanish. MLS Wrap Up and MLS El Resumen will move to Sunday evenings following the final Sunday match to highlight and recap the full week of matches, giving fans a more comprehensive view of all the week’s action, with first-rate commentary and analysis, along with can’t-miss highlights.
The inaugural Sunday Night Soccer matchup will showcase the league’s newest franchise, San Diego FC, as it makes its debut against reigning MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy on February 23 at 7 p.m. ET. To add to the excitement, the match will also broadcast live in Times Square.
Ian Nicholas Quillen for Forbes:
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In simple terms, the league – which foots production costs under the terms of the 10-year, $2.5 billion worldwide streaming pact – is cutting its per-game investment in a run-of-the-mill Saturday night broadcast, but pulling out more stops and expense for a selection of premium games. And it’s a tradeoff that will probably result in a better overall experience for the viewer.
The Soccer Sunday package address a consistent complaint from fans in 2023 and 2024, that there was rarely enough time for fans to watch their own teams live and also keep tabs on what else was going on in the league.
That’s because – in a move intended to appease fans’ desire for more consistent kickoff times – Apple TV insisted on scheduling the overwhelming majority of games in those first two seasons at 7:30 p.m. local time on Saturday or Wednesday nights.
The new 2025 schedule doesn’t obliterate that formula but merely tweaks it, placing about 20% of that total inventory of 510 matches outside those Saturday and Wednesday windows. That might not sound like much change, but in terms of the average viewer, it could be the difference between consuming one match a weekend and consuming three or four.
In addition, Soccer Sunday will also include pregame and post-game content from the MLS Season Pass studio headquarters, with MLS Wrap Up show following the featured game rather than the Saturday slate. In short, the Sunday games will be treated more like an “event” in the way that ESPN treats Monday Night Football or NBC and Peacock treat their Premier League Mornings.

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MacDailyNews Take: The decade-long (and, hopefully, longer) MLS experiment is already compelling for MLS fans, but new things like Sunday Night Soccer can, and likely will, expand MLS viewership.

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