NEW YORK — Major League Soccer (MLS) announced yesterday new four-year, linear television broadcast agreements with Bell Media’s TSN and RDS in Canada as well as with Fox Sports and TelevisaUnivision in the U.S.
These new linear agreements complement the 10-year streaming agreement MLS signed with Apple earlier this year, a press release explains.
When the Apple partnership was announced, it was unclear how it would impact linear broadcast rights to MLS games in Canada, although Groupe TVA’s TVA Sports confirmed at the time its rights deal was ending with the conclusion of the 2022 MLS season.
Under the new linear rights agreements with MLS, which cover the 2023-2026 seasons, TSN and RDS will have an extensive schedule of regular season matches — including at least one match per week featuring a Canadian team — along with eight playoff matches and MLS Cup every year.
In addition, TSN and RDS will be the Canadian linear broadcast home for select matches in Leagues Cup, which is “the monumental new chapter for North American soccer beginning in 2023” that “will see MLS and LIGA MX pause their seasons each summer as 47 clubs compete in a World-Cup style tournament to crown a champion,” the release explains.
TSN will present 12 group stage and four round of 32 matches each Leagues Cup tournament, while RDS will air three group stage and four round of 32 matches.
Bell Media’s MLS rights agreements also include extensive highlight rights, editorial coverage and cross-marketing support.
In the U.S., Fox Sports (Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes) will air 34 MLS regular season games and eight MLS Cup playoff matches each season, including 15 regular season games each year on Fox. Fox and Fox Deportes will be the linear broadcast home for MLS Cup in the U.S.
Fox Sports also has the linear rights to air select Leagues Cup matches, including 10 group stage, four round of 32, and two round of 16 matches each tournament on FS1.
TelevisaUnivision’s linear agreement with MLS allows it to broadcast 21 Leagues Cup matches each tournament on Univision/UNIMÁS/TUDN, which includes 12 group stage matches, eight knockout round matches and the Leagues Cup final.
TSN has broadcast MLS games since 2011. RDS was previously a league broadcast partner from 2011 to 2017. TVA Sports held the broadcast rights to MLS games from 2017 until the end of the 2022 season.
Image borrowed from Bell Media’s website.
