Major League Soccer will be available to all Apple TV subscribers at no extra charge beginning in 2026

MLS and Apple have agreed to overhaul their partnership starting in 2026, multiple sources tell The Athletic. The standalone MLS Season Pass subscription will be discontinued, and every MLS match will stream directly on the main Apple TV app as part of the broader service.
Paul Tenorio for The Athletic:
‎

It’s an important change for the MLS-Apple deal, which put every MLS game behind a paywall that cost fans for $14.99 per month or $99 for the season. While the streaming service provided a far better broadcast experience than the local TV deals for diehard MLS fans, it also made it much more difficult for the league to reach new fans.
The standard Apple TV subscription is $12.99 per month or $99 for an annual plan.
Coming out from behind a separate paywall will make MLS available for all of Apple TV’s subscribers.
Variety reported that Apple had 45 million subscribers, but on a recent podcast appearance Apple executive Eddy Cue pushed back on those projections. “We haven’t said what our numbers are but we’re significantly more than that,” Cue said.

‎
MacDailyNews Take: This is a win-win as it will add value to Apple TV and substantially increase viewership for MLS games!
Importantly, Lionel Messi’s new Inter Miami contract, announced on October 23, 2025, is a three-year extension that keeps him with the club through the end of the 2028 MLS season. This extends his original deal (which ran from mid-2023 through 2025).
Removing the paywall and making MLS available to all Apple TV subscribers is, of course, a genius idea (even if it is over eleven years old):
Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV, buying rights to Premiere League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatloads of cash. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014

‎
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Major League Soccer will be available to all Apple TV subscribers at no extra charge beginning in 2026 appeared first on MacDailyNews.