Fans will be able to watch about 250 out-of-market MLS games a year through ESPN+GETTY IMAGES
The MLS Live streaming platform is "shutting down," and the league is "shifting those games to ESPN+," the new OTT service that Disney plans to launch in the next few months, according to sources cited by Soshnick & Palmeri of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Fans will be "able to watch about 250 out-of-market games a year, meaning they won't be able to see their home teams." The agreement "doesn't impact ESPN's regularly scheduled televised soccer matches, which won't be on the web service." The MLS Live service was "priced at $79 a year," while ESPN+ will be "$5 a month, or $60 annually." But ESPN+ is "likely" to roll out after the March 3 start of the MLS season. A source said that matches will be "available for free on MLSsoccer.com until the new service is available" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 2/13). PHILLY.com's Jonathan Tannenwald tweeted that folding MLS Live into ESPN+ is "one of the biggest media rights moves MLS has ever made." Making games available to what "should be a big audience for that platform will immediately increase MLS' exposure to casual fans in a huge way" (TWITTER.com, 2/13).
GREAT SALT LAKE: In L.A., Stephen Battaglio notes the deal announced yesterday between Salt Lake City-based KSL-NBC and Real Salt Lake to livestream the MLS team's games "without also carrying them over the air" is the "first such agreement between a U.S. local TV station and a pro sports team." The agreement "reflects how viewers ... are changing the way broadcasters are looking at their business." It could "pave the way for other local broadcasters to strike similar deals." KSL "pursued the streaming rights separately as it looks for local content to reach audiences who have migrated to digital devices." One-fifth of the market's households do "not have pay-TV subscriptions" (L.A. TIMES, 2/14). In Salt Lake City, Scott Pierce reports RSL will "produce the games and provide the program" to Utah-based KMYU-MYT and KSL. The games will "stream only in Utah and a few other areas -- Boise, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Reno -- that are part of Real Salt Lake's TV territory." In other parts of the U.S. and in other countries, KSL's stream will be "geoblocked because of the MLS TV and streaming contracts" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 2/14).
