Apple Lowers Paywall for MLS Playoff Matches
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Apple is once again offering late-season MLS content free to all Apple TV subscribers, whether or not they’ve ever opted for the pricier MLS Season Pass package. However, this year it’s doing things a bit differently.
The MLS Season Pass is a standalone package that exists separately from Apple TV (the streaming service that was known as Apple TV+ until last week), although those who subscribe to both get a $20 discount off the full-season MLS offering.
Like many seasonal sports streaming packages, Apple regularly drops the subscription price of the MLS Season Pass as the season unfolds, and adjusts its Apple TV subscriber discount accordingly. In September 2024, Apple reduced the price of its MLS Season Pass to $9.99 for the remainder of the season — a discount that brought the cost to $0 for Apple TV subscribers.
Nevertheless, those who wanted to take advantage of the free 2024 MLS content still had to opt in by hitting the subscribe button — and remember to cancel it afterward to avoid an automatic renewal at $79 for the 2025 season.
Although Apple announced another MLS Season Pass price drop this past September, it wasn’t quite as generous this year. The remainder of the 2025 MLS season was $29, while Apple TV subscribers still had to pay $25 to join in. The new pricing was proportional to the cost of the full 2025 MLS Season Pass and the time remaining, but it was still a bit disappointing for casual fans compared with last year’s more deeply discounted offer.
However, it seems Apple had another strategy in mind. Instead of drawing people into another subscription — even a free one — it’s removing the MLS Season Pass paywall entirely for this year’s playoff matches.
According to Sports Business Journal, Apple and MLS will be streaming the entire slate of playoff matches on Apple TV for all subscribers, much like MLB’s Friday Night Baseball. There’s no need to sign up for an MLS Season Pass; when the MLS Cup Playoffs begin on Wednesday, they’ll be available in the Apple TV app — ready to watch without any extra steps beyond finding them and tuning in.
While it’s not the first time Apple has made MLS content free to Apple TV subscribers, it’s the largest-scale offering since Apple launched the add-on sports streaming package nearly three years ago. However, Apple has also been gradually scaling up. What began with the occasional free weekend expanded this year to include a broader selection of matches during the regular season and Leagues Cup.
Tearing Down the Paywall?
This has led to some speculation that Apple might eventually tear down the MLS Season Pass paywall entirely and offer matches to all Apple TV subscribers, much like its new Formula One streaming deal. However, Apple is paying MLS substantially more money — reportedly around $250 million per season — in a 10-year deal likely brokered from the start to assume a baseline level of subscription revenue. Industry insiders say there are additional revenue sharing arrangements on top of that, although the specifics have never been disclosed. That means Apple can’t just unilaterally make it free — it would have to rework its arrangement with MLS.
By comparison, sources say the F1 deal is costing Apple $140 million per year for a five-year deal that would have been built from the ground up to deliver premium content as part of the Apple TV subscription. Such an arrangement was also likely what piqued Formula One’s interest, as the franchise has been looking for ways to get a broader and younger US audience interested in the sport. That’s not a problem that MLS seems to have.
Ultimately, Apple lowering the bar for access to the MLS Playoffs isn’t likely much different from the other times it’s made MLS matches more broadly available. Those moves have generally been about getting casual fans hooked — a way to whet appetites for the full Season Pass rather than a signal that Apple plans to tear down the paywall for good.
