Orlando City SC Launches Exclusive Match Streaming App for Local Fans
Streaming Orlando City SC matches for local MLS fans has become a lot easier. Today, Orlando City SC announced an exclusive app for local fans to watch matches without the need for a cable subscription.
LionNation TV, named for Orlando City’s team crest, will allow local fans to stream every match through the app. Only Central Florida-area viewers who would otherwise be blacked out will be able to watch games through the app — others will have to watch through ESPN+.
The app will be bundled in with a LionNation Premium membership, the club’s existing awards program that includes benefits such as a reward point system, ticket and in-stadium discounts, priority access to pre-sales, complimentary tickets to the club’s NWSL affiliate Orlando Pride, and more. The program costs $59 a year.
While Orlando City games are available locally on MyNetworkTV affiliate Fox 35+ (WBRW), which is available on select live TV streaming services, the games themselves aren’t available to stream. Fox 35+ did not acquire the streaming rights from the league, which charges a fee for said rights.
Earlier this month, The Streamable announced that Orlando City SC’s deal with YouTube TV was coming to an end. The platform gave fans a “synthetic” RSN available just to YouTube TV subscribers that was removed this year. It’s unknown how YouTube TV’s sponsorship of rival MLS club LAFC affected this deal, if at all. YouTube TV also ended a similar deal with Seattle Sounders FC earlier this year.
Last March, Sports Business Journal reported that the “MLS has instructed all 24 of its current clubs as well as its (then-)future expansion teams in Miami, Nashville and Austin to not have any local broadcast agreements that go beyond 2022. That is the year that the league’s national and international broadcast deals will expire, thus allowing MLS to potentially package any combination of those rights to future broadcast partners.”
LionNation TV will only be available for download on mobile phones but offers a casting option for those who want to watch their club on the big screen.