MLS picks up linear TV deals with FOX and Univision

While Major League Soccer has a massive streaming deal, MLS has also acquired linear TV rights from both FOX and Univision. The entities announced a four-year deal, even though MLS’s streaming deal with MLS Season Pass on Apple is a 10-year agreement.

FOX Sports’s channels, namely FOX, FS1 and FOX Deportes, have exclusive English- and Spanish-language TV broadcasts of an average of 34 regular season and eight MLS Cup Playoff matches each season. Same goes for the MLS Cup Final. The linear TV home of that for the next four years is FOX for English-language broadcasts, and FOX Deportes for Spanish.

Noticeably, Univision is notpart of the deal with MLS games. However, that does not mean MLS teams entirely exit the channel. Instead, Leagues Cup games, which involve all MLS and Liga MX teams, have a linear Spanish-language home on Univision. Select games are also available on UniMás and TUDN.

For English-language Leagues Cup coverage, FOX’s channels have linear broadcasts of those games. The linear channels carry 10 group stage, four round of 32 and two round of 16 clashes. Notably, the Leagues Cup Final does not have English-language linear TV coverage. Instead, that is available exclusively through the MLS Season Pass.

Of course, all MLS and Leagues Cup games are available via streaming from the MLS Season Pass from Apple. This comes at a price point of $14.99 per month or $99 per season.

MLS announces linear TV deals with FOX and Univision

It is an unclear future for Major League Soccer. It no longer has games on ESPN, a home for the league since its inception. Also, the lack of Univision is the first time it is not part of the MLS-specific deal since 2007. Now, all actual league games on TV run through FOX.

As stated, each regular season has 34 games on FOX, FS1 or FOX Deportes. Moreover, 15 of those regular season games are on the FOX channel, which is an OTA channel. Additionally, there are eight Audi MLS Cup Playoff matches on those three channels. However, MLS has had discussion over changing its playoff structure, bringing the total number of games up to what could be over 30 by this upcoming season. Consequently, there would be just a quarter of games available to linear viewers.

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