Apple's Eddy Cue on MLS Season Pass: 'We're certainly doing much better than we had forecasted'
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jun 2, 2023
Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, and Apple CEO Tim Cook welcome MLS players at the Apple campus in Cupertino, California, in January.
In his first remarks since MLS Season Pass, the $2.5 billion partnership between Apple and MLS, launched this winter, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, talked positively about the start to the MLS season, now in its fourth month.
“We’re in Year One of a 10-year partnership,” Cue said in on-the-record remarks made on a media call on Tuesday morning and embargoed until Thursday, “so this is just the beginning. But we’re off to a great start with subscriptions and viewership. We don’t share specific subscription numbers, but I can tell you we’re certainly doing much better than we had forecasted.”
Cue has guided the launch of the unique pay service on Apple TV. He is one of the most powerful executives at Apple, overseeing Apple’s services, including Apple Music, Apple News, Apple Podcasts, the Apple TV app, and Apple TV+, as well as other products like Apple Pay and Apple’s iCloud services.
“I’m very proud and happy with what we’ve accomplished so far, but I am sure that the best is yet to come,” he added. “It’s been a great few months for such a quick turnaround. So I’m incredibly proud of everyone on our team, everyone in the league. The teams, players and owners have been instrumental in making this a huge success to start the season.”
Apple has adjusted its MLS offerings, testing the number of games it offers in front of the paywall each matchday. The lifting of the embargoed remarks coincided with the announcement of a price reduction for MLS Season Pass for the rest of the season (as low as $39 for Apple TV+ subscribers). Cue said the mid-season offer was comparable to the strategies of others.
“Our number one goal when we started this," he added, "was to make sure that in Year One, we’ve got all the MLS fans that were out there to feel like and see that we really care deeply about the game that they love, and the teams that they love."
I'm not understanding how this grows the game?!?! Not to mention, most kids don't have $100 to pay for entertainment in a world full of cheaper alternatives!
How does showing MLS on Apple TV increase the exposure of the league. This is a money-grabbing step back for MLS. Darned if I'll pay for Apple TV to watch the mediocre brand of soccer played in MLS. Garber and his wealthy MLS owners don't give a damn about quality of play, only the money flowing in. USSF sits on its collective hands and does nothing to encourage better play and development of players eligible for the the USMNT. And some people wonder why the USMNT is made up of players playing in Europe, where the quality of play in the lesser pro leagues is better than MLS.
Nobody in business would believe they are doing much better than projected, however won't share the numbers! Think about it.
Not a fan of this as a way to build the league that was making progress! Something is wrong when it is easier to watch a foreign league ?