Skip to main content

MLS Season Pass will be available to sports bars and the like

If you’re the sort who prefers to watch your MLS games from the comfort of your favorite barstool instead of your couch, you’re in luck. DirecTV today announced that it’s reached an agreement with Apple and Major League Soccer to make MLS Season Pass available to more than 300,000 restaurants, bars, hotel lounges, and more for the 2023 MLS season, via existing satellite equipment.

While that doesn’t necessarily mean that every match will be available on every TV, it means those games will be available. So you might still have to fight for screen time alongside the likes of college basketball, baseball, and football — but that’s nothing a strategically placed $20 probably can’t handle.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

MLS Season Pass is the new service exclusive to Apple TV that gets subscribers every game on practically any device, without any blackouts. It costs $13 a month if you’re also an Apple TV+ subscriber, or $15 a month if you’re not. MLS Season Pass also is available for free if you’re a T-Mobile subscriber. You can watch on pretty much any modern device, from phones and tablets to Roku, Amazon Fire TV, smart TVs, and in a web browser.

Or you can just go to your favorite pub that’s getting MLS Season Pass via DirecTV.

“Buffalo Wild Wings is excited DirecTV for Business has added MLS Season Pass to an already amazing lineup of national sports offerings,” said Tristan Meline, chief marketing officer for Buffalo Wild Wings. “With the addition of MLS Season Pass, we are able to offer even more sports fans a reason to come to our sports bars to watch their favorite teams play.”

The 2023 MLS season kicks off February 25 and runs through the fall.

Phil Nickinson
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
Apple reportedly had 2 million subscribers to MLS Season Pass in 2023
Lionel Messi seen on a promo for MLS Season Pass on a TV.

We're in the era of streaming sports exclusives. NFL Sunday Ticket is on YouTube and YouTube TV. Peacock has the English Premier League. Paramount+ has the Championship League. And we're on the eve of the 2024 MLS season, whose matches can all be had on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Apple is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to any sort of numbers, whether it's hardware or viewership But Alex Silverman at the Sports Business Journal cites two unnamed sources "with knowledge of the numbers" as saying that MLS Season Pass finished the 2023 season with more than 2 million subscribers.

Read more
MLS Season Pass in 2024: How to watch every game on Apple TV
MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

It was a big year for football in 2023, for both the American and international versions. On the pigskin front, NFL Sunday Ticket made a (mostly) successful leap to YouTube TV. And the beautiful game found a new North American home on Apple TV with MLS Season Pass.

Major League Soccer will be even bigger in 2024. There's a new team (with a new stadium) in St. Louis this season and another on the way in San Diego in 2025. Oh, and Lionel Messi is still in Miami. And this year, he's brought an old friend — Luis Suarez. Just in case you didn't think there'd be any major storylines this year.

Read more
Sling TV adds live scores and more for sports fans
Sling TV app icon on Apple TV.

Sling TV — the third-largest live streaming service in the U.S. — today announced a handful of new features that touch a wide swath of the Sling experience.

Here’s what users have to look forward to:

Read more