I was not happy when it was announced that Major League Soccer was changing the way the league was broadcasting its season. I could always count on watching most, if not all, of FC Dallas's matches for free on Channel 21 in Dallas. No cable or satellite necessary. No subscription needed. Free. Free for all. Power to the masses.
So MLS launched a new and innovative partnership with Apple TV called Season Pass. Every match would now be available on any device without any blackouts. But some things bothered me...
1) It costs $100 a season to subscribe to Season Pass, unless you're already an Apple TV+ subscriber which knocks the price down to $79 a season. I'm not a subscriber to Apple TV (I'm already overloaded with streaming service subscriptions with HBO Max, Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime). It just didn't seem a good idea to grow your sport by making it inaccessible to millions of people. Free vs a subscription? No brainer.
2) Apple did away with local TV broadcast crews. FC Dallas had a great crew with Mark Followill and Steve Davis. That crew got split up. Apple did hire some broadcasters to serve regionally and Mark Followill will often continue to work FC Dallas games. But he will probably have to dial back some of the homerism and enthusiasm for the home squad which made his work so appealing and distinctive. Steve Davis will continue to analysis for FC Dallas radio but I really enjoyed the Followill-Davis partnership. That partnership is gone.
Well, like a sap I ponied up and subscribed to Season Pass. I've now watched FC Dallas's first two matches on the service and here are initial thoughts...
* It does look great. The app works on TVs, phones, and iPads very well. It's intuitive and the design is slick. It's easy to navigate the content.
* The picture is clear and HD. I'm not so sure it's that big of an upgrade from the old TV broadcasts. But the games do look nice.
* There is a nice option to easily change over to the home radio broadcasters while you watch the game. However, as an FCD fan, I have to choose between Mark Followill as the TV announcer or Steve Davis on the radio broadcast. I wish I could have both at the same time. I haven't been impressed with the Apple game analysts so far although Followill is great as usual.
* There is less FC Dallas oriented talk before or after the game. Apple focuses on the game as a national broadcast rather than a local match. So, we don't get post match interviews with Jesus Ferreira in the black Man of the Match cowboy hat. We get bland, generalized whip around talk for pregame and postgame shows. I'm here for FC Dallas. I want more talk of The Huntsmen and less about Vancouver or Miami. I can always find more nationally focused shows or content when I want. But local content is sparse in Dallas regarding FC Dallas. C'mon Apple, give us a FC Dallas specific show to click on!
* The studio shows are bland. I want Alexi Lalas and Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan in there stirring things up. Taylor Twellman is better in the booth than the studio. The other hosts are just boring and the commentary superficial.
Overall there's a lot of good about Season Pass but some fine tuning does need to happen. We will see how it evolves this first season.
Regardless, this is pretty obviously where sports broadcasting is heading. It makes too much sense to have all a league's content so centralized in a coherent form. It has been nice to have almost every KC Chiefs game broadcast here in Dallas recently. But that's only because of their recent success and having a Whitehouse, Texas guy as their quarterback. In years past it was often hard to find games. Games would often be cut off and moved to other games in case of a blowout. The start of games were often not shown due to finishing the earlier game.
Some of my friends have firesticks and watch the NFL in a similar form as Apple Season Pass on NFL + and Redzone. But at least there are still free broadcasts of the NFL. My guess is that if Apple Season Pass is a success, the other sports leagues will follow and soon you will have to pay for all their content.
It's the future and the future is coming now.
