
MLS Cup Playoffs 2024: Apple Pulls Down the Paywall; Plans All-Messi Live Match Feed on TikTok We wanted to put our best foot forward, - Emeka Ofodile, Global Head of Sports Marketing, Apple By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, October 25, 2024 - 10:43 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Coming off a regular season dominated by the legendary Lionel Messi, Major League Soccer turns its focus to the MLS Cup Playoffs where, for the entire first round, the league is lifting the subscription paywall required to watch MLS matches streamed exclusive to Apple TV+.
We're offering Friday's match to fans worldwide on MLS Season Pass at no cost to celebrate an amazing season and Messi making his first-ever appearance in the MLS Cup Playoffs, Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Services said in an official release. This is a historic moment, and we're thrilled that viewers have such an extensive array of ways to watch.
In addition, Apple TV will offer a special live stream focused on Messi to the social media platform TikTok, coinciding with coverage of top-seeded Inter Miami's match with Atlanta United FC on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. ET. The stream, which will show a camera locked-off on Messi for the entirety of the match will broadcast live on the @MLS TikTok profile and be simulcast on the @InterMiamiCF TikTok profile.
The greater Apple brand is also buying into the hype as the Inter Miami-Atlanta United match will also stream live in Apple Store locations across the world, including Apple Fifth Avenue in New York City, Apple Union Square in San Francisco, and Apple The Grove in Los Angeles, in addition to Apple Store locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, and Mexico.
It's been an incredible season. There's so many great contenders and storylines coming into the playoffs, Emeka Ofodile, Global Head of Sports Marketing for Apple said during a media press briefing earlier this week. [We're] working in close collaboration with the league. As we jump into this postseason, we wanted to put our best foot forward and make the playoffs bigger than ever for both casual and diehard fans.
MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+ will broadcast every match of the postseason, including the MLS Cup final on December 7. MLS Season Pass is available through the Apple TV app on Apple devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, set-top boxes, and game consoles, as well as on the web.
Fans can also watch MLS Season Pass from the Apple TV app on Apple Vision Pro, where they can watch games alongside other apps in their physical space and in Spatial Audio.
More from Sports Video Group
25/08/2026
NC State's Matthew Byrd breaks down how an IP-based infrastructure is delivering greater flexibility and scalability for Wolfpack productions...
25/08/2026
Deal expands the DTC reach in-market of Capitals, Wizards, Mystics games and oth...
25/08/2026
The two-year renovation period will create a stadium of the future for the NFL f...
25/08/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
25/08/2026
Shell Energy Stadium in Houston has installed a new L-Acoustics A Series loudspeaker system, designed and installed by LD Systems, a Clair Global brand. The 20,...
25/08/2026
FloCollege is expanding its distribution and product offerings for the 2026-27 season, covering more than 20 NCAA partner conferences across Division I, II, and...
25/08/2026
TNA Wrestling and REVOLT have announced a content partnership bringing exclusive TNA Xplosion matches and content from TNA's library to REVOLT.
Our indust...
25/08/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its Q3 2026 Data Hub analysis showing that FAST sports programming is growing at more than ...
25/08/2026
Amagi has appointed Thomas d'H rouville as Head of Sales for France, Benelux, and Nordics. Based in Paris, he will lead Amagi's growth strategy across t...
25/08/2026
IPC has appointed CCATech as its channel partner in Brazil, expanding the company's presence in Latin America. CCATech was founded in 2023 by Carlos Abrah o...
25/08/2026
FanConnect has announced the FC4, a multi-output media player designed to drive mid-sized video walls, multi-screen concession stands, and multi-display digital...
25/08/2026
JWX has launched JWX Content Hub, a platform for publisher video that combines content transformation, social distribution, audience engagement, and monetizatio...
25/08/2026
Techex has appointed Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer. Almond brings more than 25 years of experience across technology, media, and telecommunications, ha...
25/08/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate infrastructure connecting SDI, SMPTE ST 2110, MXL, and software-based processing at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September...
25/08/2026
Franchises are taking greater ownership of production, distribution, and the fan...
25/08/2026
The first-year circuit for former professional athletes leans on LiveU, Starlink...
24/08/2026
Co-authors Mike Soltys and Garrett Sutton reflect on Rasmussen's vision, intentional optimism,' and fan-first philosophy following his death last week...
21/08/2026
A massive deployment of specialty cameras, graphics, and AR will showcase the na...
21/08/2026
The West Coast Conference unveiled its new 30-second public service announcement, the latest expression of the Conference's We Rise in the West brand iden...
21/08/2026
New look will serve as the foundation for ESPN's upcoming NFL season and Sup...
21/08/2026
ESPN will air the ninth annual MLB Little League Classic presented by New York Life on Sunday, August 23, at 7 p.m. ET from Historic Bowman Field in Williamspor...
21/08/2026
In an emotional acceptance speech in Canton, Grossman celebrated the pioneering ...
20/08/2026
From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, US...
20/08/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
20/08/2026
At IBC this year, Veritone (14.A56) is bringing two connected themes to the booth: architectural independence in enterprise AI, and the automation of the media ...
20/08/2026
Telestream and ScorePlay have announced a partnership combining Telestream's...
20/08/2026
The Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League have announced a three-year agreement with ESPN, bringing more than 300 hours of live curling coverage to U.S. audienc...
20/08/2026
Nielsen has announced a series of enhancements to its Big Data + Panel currency measurement methodology, taking effect August 31. The updates were developed in ...
20/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected by service provider Big Blue Marble (formerly ORS Group) to provide its Nimbra platform as the core media transport solution for a...
20/08/2026
The 2026 US Open will bring a series of free fan activations across New York City ahead of and during the tournament, which runs August 23-September 13.
We...
20/08/2026
Bridge Technologies will announce a transport stream (TS) playout feature for its VB330 and VB220 compressed monitoring probes at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71).
The fe...
20/08/2026
ENCO will demonstrate solutions across captioning, translation, AI production tools, automation, and virtual production at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A34, Amsterdam RAI, ...
20/08/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will demonstrate camera robotics and mot...
20/08/2026
Chyron will demonstrate news workflow solutions at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A23), marking the company's 60th anniversary. Highlights include updates to PRIME HTML, ...
20/08/2026
Spectrum SportsNet LA, the exclusive television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is now available to Spectrum customers in former Cox markets following the clos...
20/08/2026
swXtch.io will unveil expanded Global SRT Distribution and native multicast tran...
20/08/2026
Riedel Communications has announced that Transformation Church in the United States has deployed a communications system built around the Artist intercom ecosys...
20/08/2026
The bestselling author and longtime Apple observer explores how product launches...
20/08/2026
The Orlando Magic entered last season with a dramatically upgraded in-venue prod...
20/08/2026
Pacers Sports and Entertainment has announced a partnership with DAZN, making it the exclusive streaming home of Indiana Pacers basketball. A team-branded strea...
20/08/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
20/08/2026
The NHL has announced two major developments tied to its Germany growth strategy...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...