History of Major League Soccer on television

On March 15, 1994, Major League Soccer with ESPN and ABC Sports announced the league's first television rights deal without any players, coaches, or teams in place.[10] The three-year agreement committed 10 games on ESPN, 25 on ESPN2, and the MLS Cup on ABC. The deal gave MLS no rights fees but split advertising revenue between the league and networks.

MLS Soccer Saturday was the first weekly presentation of MLS games, which usually started at 4PM EST and was sponsored by Radioshack. Before the start of the 2007 season, the league and ESPN announced that MLS Primetime Thursday would be the flagship broadcast as part of a new television contract, ending an 11-year broadcast run of matches on Saturday afternoons.

From 2005 to 2011, FOX Soccer showed 25 to 30 live games each season, plus 2 to 3 playoff games. In 2007, MLS Saturday started showing a 30-minute pregame and a 30-minute postgame show for each game.

After averaging 223,000 viewers during the 2006 season,[11] ESPN2's ratings increased slightly in 2007, to 289,000 viewers, including a regular-season high of 658,000 viewers for David Beckham's second regular season match. However, ratings dipped to 253,000 in 2008. Attendance often lagged, with few sellouts for the weeknight matches,[12] with marquee club Los Angeles Galaxy unable to host home matches at the Home Depot Center on Thursdays due to its agreement with California State University, Dominguez Hills.

On August 4, 2006, ESPN reached a comprehensive multimedia agreement with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) for the rights to Major League Soccer through 2014. As part of the eight-year agreement, ESPN2 will televise 26 regular-season and three playoff MLS matches each year, all in primetime on Thursdays.

Highlights of the agreement include:

• ESPN2 will televise 26 regular-season MLS matches, primarily on Thursday nights.
• ESPN2 will televise three MLS playoff matches.
• ABC will televise one regular-season MLS match, the MLS All-Star Game, and MLS Cup. (replaced by ESPN in 2009, until 2017)
• Since 2019, ABC will televise the MLS Cup
• Televised coverage of the first round of the MLS Draft.
• MLS telecasts can be re-aired in full or abbreviated versions on any ESPN media platforms
• Extensive footage rights for all ESPN media platforms such as SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, ESPN Motion, ESPN360, etc.
• ESPN will also produce and be solely responsible for the content, whereas, they had not been able to do that in the past.

Before the start of the 2007 season, the league and ESPN announced that MLS Primetime Thursday would be the flagship broadcast as part of a new television contract, ending an 11-year broadcast run of matches on Saturday afternoons. Also in 2007, ESPN2's coverage of the MLS included new on-screen scoreboards, similar to those used on other sports telecasts. In 2008, another new score graphic was debuted, this time in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

ESPN added several features in an attempt to improve presentation—high-definition broadcasts, a sky-cam for some matches, a virtual offside line, a ball tracer, a sideline reporter, and three commentators. For the inaugural season, 2006 FIFA World Cup announcers Dave O'Brien and Eric Wynalda served as play-by-play and analyst, respectively, with Allen Hopkins serving as the sideline reporter.[13] Tommy Smyth was later added as a co-analyst.[14] Glenn Davis and Rob Stone filled in for O'Brien on occasion.[15]

ESPN would join forces with Fox Sports and Univision to broadcast over 100 MLS games (combined), live and exclusive, from 2015 and 2022 in its new media rights deal. ESPN has been involved with the league since its inception in 1996.

Coverage of MLS expanded into Canada in 2007 with the addition of Toronto FC. Currently, English-language national MLS broadcast rights in Canada are held by the TSN networks through a five-year deal first renewed in 2017. The networks primarily broadcast matches involving the league's Canadian franchises, in combination with separate "regional" rights deals giving TSN exclusive rights to all Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC matches.[16][17] A limited number of matches are also carried by CTV.

For the 2008 season, JP Dellacamera and John Harkes replaced O'Brien and Wynalda as the lead team on ESPN2[18] with Davis, Smyth, and Julie Foudy occasionally filling in.

Following the 2008 season, ESPN discontinued MLS Primetime Thursday, citing lagging ratings[19] and hoping to find better lead-in programming. It was replaced by the MLS Game of the Week, which rotates among a variety of nights and time slots.[20]

Ratings have largely remained steady if stagnant despite the move from the regular time slot. Viewership averaged 299,000 per broadcast in 2009, up from 253,000 in 2008;[21] however, it dipped to 253,000 in 2010 before rebounding to 291,000 in 2011[22] with some matches (having been moved to ESPN as opposed to ESPN2) drawing over 600,000 viewers.

On January 23, 2009, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owners of Major League Soccer franchise Toronto FC (along with other major sports teams in the city), announced they would acquire Insight Sports' interest in GolTV.[23] The deal was approved by the CRTC on June 2, 2009.[24] In 2015, MLSE reported to the CRTC that it had bought out GOL TV USA's stake in the channel.

For the 2009 season and beyond, the Thursday telecast was replaced by a variety of primetime games on Wednesdays through Saturdays. Beginning in 2009, until 2019, as part of ESPN's far-reaching strategy of moving sports programming to ESPN, all matches - including MLS Cup - are now aired on either ESPN or ESPN2. Since 2019, in odd numbered years, only the MLS Cup will air on ABC.

In February 2011, the TSN family of networks (in which ESPN owns a 20% interest) announced a six-year deal for national MLS broadcast rights in Canada. TSN and TSN2 would broadcast 24 games during the 2011 season and air a minimum of 30 games per season during the subsequent five seasons, all featuring at least one Canadian team. French-language sister networks RDS and RDS2 had similar broadcast rights. The networks also carried the MLS Cup and select playoff games, the MLS All-Star Game, and additional games not involving Canadian teams.[25] GolTV Canada will also continue to carry selected all-U.S. MLS matchups.[26]

Toronto FC regional games were split between the TSN and Sportsnet families of networks (their parent companies, Rogers Communications and Bell Canada, jointly owned a stake in TFC's parent company). Sportsnet also aired Vancouver Whitecaps FC games (primarily on its Pacific feed and national network Sportsnet One),[27] and TVA Sports aired Montreal Impact games.[28]

Also in 2011, MLS on Fox Soccer was rebranded as Soccer Night in America, with its production revamped to provide a viewing experience similar to NFL on Fox.[29] However, Fox was outbid by NBC Sports Network for its MLS package for the 2012-2014 seasons.[30]

On January 5, 2012, NBC Sports signed a three-year contract with Major League Soccer[31] to nationally televise 40 matches per year,[32] which would primarily air on the NBC Sports Network (now NBCSN), beginning with the 2012 season. All NBC telecasts included pre-game and post-game coverage, with the network intending to promote its games during broadcasts of its other major sports properties, such as the Olympics. More specifically as part of the new deal, NBC would carry three regular season and two playoff matches (the first time since 2002 that that many MLS games were to be broadcast on English-language network television), as well as 38 regular season and three playoff matches on sister channel NBCSN; both networks also aired matches featuring the United States men's national soccer team (with two games airing on each network).

NBC Sports took over the Major League Soccer rights from Fox Soccer[33][34] and Fox Deportes. Previous deals with U.S. partners ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and Galavisión continued in 2012, as did with Canadian partners TSN, TSN2 and GolTV.

NBC Sports' ratings for MLS improved greatly due to the increased presence of NBCSN (fueled by their NHL television package), with average ratings for the games jumping 122% for the inaugural season of the contract in 2012. Yet still, several games ranked at or near the bottom of the ratings among sporting event and entertainment telecasts, whereas ESPN's MLS coverage – which was railed by fans as being inferior to NBC's – had higher viewership, attributed to the greater availability of ESPN and ESPN2 nationally.

NBC and NBCSN's MLS telecasts during the 2013 season averaged 115,000 viewers per game, a steep drop from 2012. Looking to capitalize on further soccer opportunities, NBC Sports acquired the rights to the Premier League from Fox Soccer in 2012, in time for the 2013–14 Premier League season. Speculation abounded on if MLS was to be treated by the sports division secondarily to the Premier League, which has a greater U.S. audience than the domestic league, placing MLS' future with NBC in doubt.

In 2014, negotiations broke down between NBC and MLS on a new television contract. The league instead signed an agreement with Fox Sports to serve as its U.S. broadcast partner, beginning with the 2015 season in a shared rights deal with ESPN.[35]

NBC also operates a blog, ProSoccerTalk, which ran news headlines from Major League Soccer and other international soccer leagues. With NBC acquiring the broadcast television rights to the Premier League in 2013, significantly more coverage of the English top-flight was added to the site.

In 2015, MLS and TSN announced a new broadcast agreement that included a five-year media rights extension.[36] Under this new partnership, TSN became the exclusive English-language broadcaster of MLS in Canada beginning in the 2017 season.[36] TSN currently delivers exclusive coverage of every MLS game featuring Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, a select number of CF Montréal matches, a selection of matches featuring U.S. teams, as well as exclusive English-language coverage of the MLS All-Star Game, MLS Cup Playoffs, and MLS Cup.[36]

The 2015 agreement also included a new five-year agreement with TVA Sports as the official French-language broadcaster in Canada.[36]

Meanwhile, MLS Soccer Sunday is telecast primarily on ESPN, ESPN2 in the 5 pm Eastern Time Zone broadcast window. Most matches are simulcast live on ESPN Deportes. The first broadcast on March 8, 2015 was the home opener of Orlando City SC and fellow expansion side New York City FC. The match, which ended in a 1–1 tie, was broadcast from the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida before a crowd of 62,510 spectators.[37]

English-language and Spanish-language feeds are carried on ESPN3.[38]

As part of the current broadcast agreement between Major League Soccer and its network partners,[38] ESPN Networks and Fox Sports each contracted to broadcast 34 weekly matches in an assigned broadcast window. In addition to the weekly broadcast window, each broadcast group gained the right to transmit their broadcasts on their respective digital broadcast service.[38]

Additionally, ESPN Networks was granted the right to develop an over-the-top content (OTT) service consisting of all out-of-market broadcasts of any MLS match not part of the MLS Soccer Sunday broadcasts nor those of Viernes de Fútbol, the Friday evening presentation of MLS on the networks of Univision.[38] Although the service was intended to begin with the 2015 MLS season in the first year of the new agreement, ESPN decided it could not logistically offer the service that year and MLS continued to offer its MLS Live digital service as it had previous seasons.[39]

MLS Soccer Sunday is telecast primarily on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes in the 7 pm Eastern Time Zone broadcast window.[38] The first broadcast on March 8, 2015 was the first match of a doubleheader featuring Sporting Kansas City and the New York Red Bulls.[40] The second match featured Seattle Sounders FC and New England Revolution.[41]

In 2015, Soccer Night in America was again rebranded as MLS Soccer Sunday due to a new deal between Fox and ESPN, with games on Fox Sports 1 airing from 7-9pm ET.

Also starting in 2015, Viernes de Fútbol is the first and (as of 2016) only exclusive broadcast of any North American major professional sports league on a Spanish language television network.[42] English language commentary is available using the second audio program and on Twitter.[43][44]

On January 10, 2017, TVA Sports acquired national French-language rights to Major League Soccer.[45]

In 2018, online streaming service DAZN obtained Major League Soccer's digital out-of-market service MLS Live—with live and on-demand streaming of matches featuring U.S. teams (matches with Canadian teams are only available after a 48-hour delay to protect the league's main rightsholders TSN and TVA Sports).[46]