Apple Negotiations for New FIFA Tournament Fall Through; ‘Key Plays’ Feature Coming to MLS Season Pass
It appears FIFA’s newest club tournament won’t stream on Apple services after all.
A new FIFA World Cup tournament featuring some of the greatest soccer teams in the world, like Real Madrid, Manchester City, and even Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal SFC would be a dream come true for fans of the beautiful game. FIFA certainly thinks so and is doing everything it can to ensure the tournament is actually ready to be presented to fans by its 2025 target launch date. But according to Bloomberg, efforts to launch the tournament smoothly have suffered a major setback, as talks with Apple regarding worldwide television rights have broken down. That means fans probably won’t be able to watch the new FIFA tournament on MLS Season Pass, even as the streamer adds a new feature designed to help viewers catch up on the biggest moments in live soccer games.
Key Details:
- Apple and FIFA were close to a deal for the tournament’s global TV rights in April, but FIFA now wants to sell regional rights.
- One of Apple’s bedrock principles regarding sports deals is the ability to stream games to a worldwide audience.
- A new “Key Plays” feature will allow MLS Season Pass subscribers to catch up on the most important moments of a game if they join in the middle.
News that Apple had engaged with FIFA about the global distribution rights to its new tournament first began to circulate in late April. Originally FIFA wanted to earn as much as $4 billion in rights fees for the tournament, but Apple’s number was around one-quarter of that total.
That could help explain why Bloomberg reports that FIFA has been exploring the possibility of selling regional rights to the tournament, increasing the number of revenue sources from TV rights it would get. That’s likely why talks with Apple fell through; after discussions with the English Premier League about a subset of its rights went south last summer, Apple executives made it clear that they prize the ability to offer live sports to a global customer base highly, and they aren’t as interested in sports deals that allow them to show events only in specific regions.
The tournament will have spots for 32 teams, 29 of which have been filled so far. FIFA must now head back to the drawing board to find broadcasters to carry the tournament, which could mean lower participation fees and prize winnings for the teams that do sign up. Nevertheless, the governing body of global soccer is maintaining a veneer of calm, even as it has less and less time to get the tournament set up before its 2025 start date.
“FIFA is fully confident and convinced of the commercial and sporting success of the new competition,” a FIFA spokesperson said in a statement. “FIFA is in regular and productive dialogue with the key counterparties involved including prospective venues, media and commercial partners, and of course the clubs themselves.”
What is MLS Season Pass’s New ‘Key Plays’ Feature?
The breakdown of talks between Apple and FIFA means that games from the new tournament are highly unlikely to stream on MLS Season Pass or Apple TV+ unless a drastic shift occurs. That’s especially a shame considering that according to 9to5 Apple, MLS Season Pass is adding a new catch-up feature called “Key Plays” that will allow viewers who join an MLS game already in progress to browse through the most important plays from that match so far.
Key Plays is available now as part of the tvOS 17.6 beta test and will become available to all MLS Season Pass subscribers on the Apple TV app when the updated operating system launches for all customers. It will be accessible from the main menu on the Apple TV app, or within the video controls menu.
Apple is just the latest streaming provider to incorporate a catch-up feature. Fubo launched the “Instant Highlights” function with AI-generated lists of highlights in May 2023, and a year earlier Peacock made a similar feature available during streams of English Premier League soccer games.
MLS Season Pass on Apple TV is an innovative way to watch every single MLS game of the entire season. It would have been a good fit for FIFA’s needs as it tries to secure broadcast partners for its new club tournament, but alas the soccer organization couldn’t come to terms on a deal with Apple to distribute games from the event.
MLS Season Pass
MLS Season Pass is a video streaming service that offers every match—including Leagues Cup and the entire Audi MLS Cup Playoffs—with no blackouts. It offers both English and Spanish announcers. MLS Season Pass also offers pre-match coverage, post-match analysis, highlights, player profiles, interviews, club content, match replays, live MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT matches, and more.