Messi Effect Boosts Apple TV: MLS Season Pass Subscriptions Doubled, Says Inter Miami Owner – CNET [CNET]

The biggest drama tied to Apple TV right now isn’t a TV show. It’s sports. 

Apple’s 10-year, $2.5 billion gamble on being the exclusive streaming network for Major League Soccer is already paying off tremendously. Global soccer superstar Lional Messi just joined the MLS, moving to South Florida to play on the Inter Miami team. Pundits call him the greatest men’s soccer player of all time — and he’s been drawing in fans to subscribe to Apple’s MLS Season Pass.

Watch this: Apple’s Biggest Drama? It’s Sports

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Inter Miami Managing Owner Jorge Mas posted on social media that subscribers to MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app have “more than doubled” since Messi joined Inter Miami. (You don’t need to subscribe to Apple TV Plus to get the MLS subscription; they’re separate.) Apple CEO Tim Cook shared Mas’ post.

In Apple’s last quarterly earnings call, Cook said “we are beating our expectations in terms of subscribers,” crediting Messi for the boost. Messi reportedly gets a cut of that new subscription revenue as part of the deal bringing him to the MLS.

But not every sports team seems to be a fan of joining Apple’s streaming service, as we saw recently with teams from the Pac-12 dismissing a deal with Apple, speaking out against college football games streamed as a package instead of being broadcast on linear television.

In this week’s episode of One More Thing, which you can view embedded above, we go over Apple’s big wins and losses for sports streaming rights. We also look at the possibility of a partnership with ESPN, and what could be the next play to make Apple TV a major sports streamer.

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