The official announcement won’t come until later today, but we’re already learning details of the new eight-year TV deal that gives Major League Soccer some much needed cash and more consistent TV exposure. Starting in 2015 and lasting until 2022 (which will run concurrent with Fox’s FIFA World Cup contract), ESPN, Fox and Univision will spend $90 million a year, a big jump from the current $23 million annual rights deal from ESPN, NBC and Univision that expires after this season.
John Ourand and Christopher Botta at Sports Business Journal report that ESPN and Fox will pay $75 million annually while Univision will pay $15 million for the Spanishs language rights. In addition to MLS games, ESPN and Fox will carry US men’s national team games including World Cup qualifiers.
One of the main sticking points of the contract had been digital rights. And while all three partners will stream games that will air on their respective networks, ESPN now takes over MLS Live, the over the top streaming service that allowed fans to watch out-of-market games without having a cable subscription. Those games will likely be offered through ESPN3, however, there is talk about making it over the top so as not to alienate fans who have cut the cord with cable. These talks are in the preliminary stage.
Chris Botta writes how the MLS contract softens the blow of losing the World Cup at Univision and how important it was to land the rights to American soccer.
Over at the New York Times, Alexander Das writes that MLS will get weekly TV windows on Fridays through Univision and Sundays through ESPN and Fox. UniMás will primarily air the games in Spanish on Fridays, but here’s the kicker. It will also air games in English through the SAP channel so fans will be able to hear both languages. On Sundays, ESPN2 and Fox Sports 1 will air games at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET. MLS hopes by giving fans three consistent broadcast times, fans will be able to find the games without any confusion. In the current contract, games are played over six days and have had as many as 20 different start times.
Steve Lepore at Awful Announcing writes that ESPN and Fox will alternate airing the league’s All-Star Game and MLS Cup, so each network will air each game four times over the life of the contract.
Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com who has led the way in the reporting this story has the highlights of the new TV contracts.
So to sum up, here’s what we know:
- MLS will receive $90 million annually from ESPN/Fox/Univision beginning in 2015 through the 2022 season.
- Univision through UniMás will air a Spanish language Game of the Week on Friday nights at 7 p.m. or 11 p.m ET.
- ESPN (primarily ESPN2) and Fox (primarily Fox Sports 1) will air games on Sundays at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET.
- ESPN and Fox will air an equal amount of contests as many as 34 regular season games each and shared rights to the Playoffs.
- ESPN and Fox will alternate airing the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup each year.
- ESPN and Fox will air US Men’s National Team games including World Cup qualifiers.
- ESPN gets streaming rights to out-of-market games which are currently distributed through MLS Live.
- Both ESPN and Fox get radio rights to their games.
- Univision receives exclusive rights to two playoff games which won’t air on ESPN or Fox.
The official announcement to the MLS rights will be made later today and we’ll have the full details from all parties, ESPN, Fox and Univision when they become available.
