
MLS Kickoff 2024: Behind the Scenes With MLS Productions' New SVP and Executive Producer Ignacio Garcia Every match in English and Spanish, 1080p productions, evolving studio programming By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, February 23, 2024 - 4:22 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2023 season marked the start of a new era for Major League Soccer, which kicked off a new 10-year rights deal with Apple. Now, in year two, which began on Wednesday with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami beating Real Salt Lake 2-0, MLS and Apple are looking to evolve their coverage both on the pitch and in the studio.
Ignacio Garcia at MLS Studios (All photos: Mark Smith-USA TODAY Sports)
In addition to carrying every game, Apple's MLS Season Pass streaming service features an MLS 360 whip-around show, as well as MLS Countdown and MLS Wrap-up studio shows - all produced from the league's production center in New York City. Once again teaming with NEP for broadcast facilities and IMG for production services, MLS Productions now has a fully staffed broadcast operation running out of its NYC facility and will once again deliver all matches in 1080p with production crews and both English and Spanish announcers onsite for every match.
SVG sat down prior to the league's opening weekend with Ignacio Garcia, SVP/executive producer, MLS Productions, who came aboard this season after more than 20 years at ESPN Deportes, including serving as GM of its studio shows since 2010. Garcia, a native of Argentina, discussed how his team plans to balance coverage of Messi with the rest of the league, his key production goals and philosophies heading into this season, enhanced production technology in the studio and on the road, and what soccer fans can expect from MLS Season Pass in 2024.
In your first year with MLS, what are you most excited about this season? What are some key production philosophies and goals you're focusing on?
One of the things that gets me the most excited is the chance to elevate the storytelling and elevate the experience throughout the season. In 2023, there was great coverage during match days but not necessarily a 24/7 type of [offering]. I come from that 24/7 network environment so one of my goals here is to provide not only the great coverage on match days but also great shoulder programming. We want to transition into creating content seven days a week that fully surrounds the league.
At MLS Studios: (from left) Liam McHugh, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sacha Kljestan, and Andrew Wiebe
And how are you going about creating that 24/7 network mentality?
A lot of it is being done behind the scenes with the foundational bones [of the operation]. We now have more of a proper newsroom with people working here at our facility five days a week. We are putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to beef up the production, and I'm very confident that you will be see the results on-air.
We're also looking to expand our digital content. For example, this week, we debuted a brand-new show: This Is MLS in English and Esto es MLS in Spanish on YouTube, which is a one-hour show previewing all the matches happening this weekend. We didn't have one before, and it could potentially transition into MLS Season Pass at some point. We will continue to [create content] like that for the digital space throughout the season.
Kevin Egan at MLS Studios
How are you looking to boost your coverage for Spanish-speaking fans this season?
We are very eager to serve fans on both the English- and the Spanish-language side equally. One thing we are super excited about is adding MLS 360 in Spanish, which we only had only in English last year. We also have two different studios: one for our English[-language programming] and one for the Spanish-language side. We have made several enhancements to the Spanish-language studio, and we also plan to use Studio 1, which is our largest set used for [English programming] to do some preproduction and original content for the Spanish shows. Whether you are watching us in English or Spanish, you'll see much more cohesive coverage across the board.
TV crew at MLS Studios
Let's dive a bit deeper into MLS 360. After a pretty strong debut last season, how are you looking to evolve that whip-around show in 2024?
We are pumped to be debuting a new host, Kevin Egan, who is high energy and very engaging, while keeping most of the core talent that we had in the show last year. We are very excited because we are also adding some bilingual talent that can contribute, with former MLS coach Gio Savarese joining the team.
Philosophically, for MLS 360 this year, we're going to lean much more on the games and the live action, with the premise that you are not going to miss a single goal and you're going to see every key moment in every match. When we come back to the studio, the talent is going to be much more intentional about what they can contribute.
Since live action is the number-one priority, we're also going to be much more mindful about when we go to break, always looking to break at halftime and not in the middle of the action. There are a lot of things that we are doing conceptually to bring a new vision to MLS 360 while also building on the success of year one.
Tony Cherchi at MLS Studios
In terms of live match productions, how are you looking to build on year one of MLS Season Pass?
We love the studio side, but matches are obviously our bread and butter. First of all, just like last year, every match will be produced [onsite] with at least one truck, if not two, and both English and Spanish announcers will be at the stadium for every match. All matches will be done in 1080p again this year. And there are several things happening behind the cameras that we are confident will create new MLS style that
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
17/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
17/07/2026
Production workers at Brooklyn Bowl's Williamsburg location voted 15-1 to join IATSE Local 4. The bargaining unit covers 24 production workers at the venue,...
17/07/2026
DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced an exclusive global strategic partners...
17/07/2026
Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a strategic integrati...
17/07/2026
Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a multi-year partnership with E...
17/07/2026
Spectrum Business has announced Spectrum TV Control Pro, a centralized app-based...
17/07/2026
Clark Wire and Cable has announced that Rick Fernandez, Managing Director of Axxion Consulting, will serve as Independent Manufacturers Representative for Centr...
17/07/2026
TikTok, the NBA, and the WNBA have announced a multi-year global content partnership covering highlights distribution, creator access to marquee events, live-ga...
17/07/2026
Company alleges article contained false and misleading claims regarding customer data...
17/07/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
17/07/2026
(L-R) Edward James Olmos, Luis Valdez, Lou Diamond Phillips and Lupe Valdez attend American Pachuco: The Legend Of Luis Valdez Premiere during the 2026 Sundan...
17/07/2026
Full engine access with reduced soundset
Sonuscore have steadily been introducing a selection of reduced-cost and free versions of their flagship products r...
17/07/2026
Two new special-edition models revealed
Over the past week, Arturia have launched special-edition versions of both their premium MIDI controller and stage p...
17/07/2026
Original founder now back at the helm
In a message posted on his personal social media accounts, Dirk Ulrich has announced that both Plugin Alliance and Bra...
17/07/2026
Legendary presenter Anton Enus to sign off from SBS World News after 27 years wi...
17/07/2026
Millions rise before dawn to watch FIFA World Cup 2026 semi-finals on SBS
17 July, 2026
Media releases
England v Argentina attracted a Total TV reach of a...
17/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/07/2026
Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke
Brie Clayton July 17, 2026
0 Comments
Spline-based AI powered plugin accelerates time-consuming rotoscoping, helping...
17/07/2026
A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton July 17, 2026
0 Comments
SBIFF jury award winner finished fro...
17/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/07/2026
Lightware has published its second voluntary Sustainability Report, showing how energy efficiency, product longevity and responsible material use are increasing...
17/07/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced Griptape Enterprise, a new tier of the Griptape AI workflow orchestration platform, extended to meet the str...
17/07/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the availability of SmartRoto, a new AI-powered plugin upgrade for Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio, and Nuke Indie ...
17/07/2026
The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available!
Brie Clayton July 16, 2026
0 Comments
Fairlight Live is a new audio mixer designed fo...
17/07/2026
Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP
Andy Marken July 16, 2026
0 Comments
Nobody ever wins the games. Period. There are survivors. There\s no win...
17/07/2026
From intimate acoustic settings to large-scale festival stages, her focus has remained constant: preserving the true natural voice of the violin in every perfor...
17/07/2026
New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule
RT Radio 1 is...
17/07/2026
Think of a professional athlete. What separates elite performers is what happens...
17/07/2026
Up For The Match - Live From Croke Park this Saturday at 8pm on RT One and RT ...
17/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced DiscoverIreland.ie, as sponsor of The Traitor...
16/07/2026
Media organisations with tested plans for new products, services or revenue models can now apply for grants of up to 30,000 through the Business Innovation Syn...
16/07/2026
This recent graduate and Georgia native has turned an early fascination with live production into a growing passion for camera work
In the live-sports-video in...
16/07/2026
TNDV is marking the first anniversary of Aspiration 35, a mobile production truck built around ARRI Alexa 35 Live camera systems. Over its first year, the truck...
16/07/2026
ATSC has completed a major revision to its A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques...
16/07/2026
FloSports has announced an exclusive global media partnership with CrossFit for the 2026 CrossFit Games, presented by Air National Guard, beginning July 21 in S...
16/07/2026
Sennheiser has released firmware version 1.4 for its Spectera wireless system and announced the Spectera Command Button (Cat. No. 701014). The update adds comma...
16/07/2026
ESPN and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) have announced a multi-year...
16/07/2026
Audio-Technica has announced the 20 Series Control Application, a Stream Deck plug-in for compatible Audio-Technica USB microphones. The application is compatib...
16/07/2026
The fifteenth season of The Voice - La plus belle voix on TF1 used four Solid St...
16/07/2026
Gray Media and the Atlanta Hawks have announced a broadcast partnership that wil...
16/07/2026
Season 3 of Netflix's docuseries, which dropped this week, follows Jayden Da...
16/07/2026
The Texas Rangers and Rangers Sports Network presented by Progressive (RSN) have announced BZZR as the new direct-to-consumer distributor for Rangers game broad...
16/07/2026
With England's FIFA World Cup 2026 team getting ready to fly home after losi...
16/07/2026
In a return to Royal Birkdale, the team enjoys partnering with ETP and Gravity M...
16/07/2026
Along with a new studio at Ball Arena, the Colorado-based RSN is working with XR...