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Larry Berg is being diplomatic about the MLS’s media rights deal with AppleTV+ while expressing belief there’s room to substantially grow the revenue pie.
One day after being announced as the league’s next commissioner, Berg spoke with Front Office Sports editor-in-chief Dan Roberts. In doing so, Berg addressed recent comments in which NYCFC CEO Brad Sims called broadcast revenue the “one gaping hole” for the league, and shared his general thoughts on the Apple deal.
“Let me say this: in my private equity business, if I buy or acquire a business that has a very popular revenue item that is low, that means a lot of upside,” Berg said. “So just mathematically, we clearly have upside in media. We don’t have, in some cases, the same percentages as other sports leagues; that’s pretty obvious to us, but it also inspires us to correct that.”
Apple and the MLS entered into a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal in 2022.
Berg called the opportunity to raise TV rights revenue “uncapped upside” but said, “I don’t know if I’d call it a ‘gaping hole’ but I do think it’s an opportunity for growth and something we certainly plan to improve over time.”
Last year, outgoing MLS commissioner Don Garber defended the league’s viewership growth amid the streaming deal. The MLS Season Pass package was initially placed behind a paywall through the first four years of the deal, before becoming available with a standard Apple TV subscription for the 2026 season.
“The Apple deal has grown. We’re averaging 120,000 unique viewers per match,” Garber said. “That’s an increase of almost 50% compared to last year. Distribution has helped drive a lot of that.”
Nevertheless, Garber acknowledged that they were still trying to iron out the most relevant metrics to track.
“What we’re struggling with, and I think what the industry is struggling with, is there has been no system to be able to evaluate how people are in a subscription service, how they’re viewing and consuming games, and what is the metric that matters most,” he continued. “Is it average-minute audience? Unique viewers? Remember, we’re on a subscription service, which is very different than having your games available on a linear network.”
