Apple TV is bringing MLS announcers back to stadiums for 2026 after spending last season having some of them call games remotely to cut costs.
MLS executive vice president of media Seth Bacon confirmed the change this week, explaining that having announcers on-site improves the quality of the broadcasts and helps capture pre-match and post-match content, like interviews and features. The move applies to both English and Spanish-language broadcasts.
The remote broadcast experiment was short-lived. Apple and MLS had both broadcast teams on-site for the first two seasons of their partnership in 2023 and 2024, but started assigning some announcers to work remotely from NEP Vista Worldlink in Dania Beach, Florida, in 2025.
The decision drew immediate criticism when Philadelphia Inquirer soccer reporter Jonathan Tannenwald broke the news in January 2025, with Bacon defending the move, claiming it was “no different,” though Tannenwald noted that he and many viewers disagreed.
MLS exec Seth Bacon confirms: yes, announcers will call games remotely this year.
He makes the case it’s no different. (He knows I and many viewers disagree.)
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Fans paying $99 per season for MLS Season Pass at the time had every right to question why the league was scaling back production quality, even if only for select games. MLS said most broadcasts would still be called on-site, but the move didn’t inspire much confidence in a partnership that was already facing questions about accessibility and viewership.
A year later, Bacon sees it differently
“We understand the value of having the announcers closer to the action for the match itself,” Bacon said, per Sports Business Journal. “But we have also really started to understand having those announcers on site, the ability for them to help us capture more content outside the 90 minutes that can then get pushed out across Apple and our own and operated channels is a big benefit to us.”
While the league is course-correcting, it’s still making cuts elsewhere to offset the costs. The Spanish-language version of MLS 360 — the RedZone-style whiparound show that runs on Saturdays — is being discontinued. Bacon claimed that viewership data showed more than 90 percent of audiences watched in English.
The Spanish-language changes extend beyond MLS 360. The Guardian reported last month that MLS is cutting about a quarter of its Spanish-language broadcast talent, with half the games this season covered by one announcer instead of two. Commentary teams like Sammy Sadovnik and Diego Valeri, Ramses Sandoval and Miguel Gallardo, and Jorge Perez-Navarro and Marcelo Balboa are among those reportedly sticking around. The Guardian also reported that MLS plans to produce about half its matches overseas, with IMG handling production from London.
“After careful consideration and in response to fan feedback, we are evolving our Spanish-language programming to better reflect how our audience engages with the game,” Bacon said in a statement to The Guardian. “Our Spanish-language coverage will focus on what fans value most in shoulder programming: high-energy, live broadcasts from the stadium that bring them closer to the action through pre- and post-game shows.”
The changes come during year four of the Apple partnership, which has already undergone significant restructuring. The league folded MLS Season Pass into standard Apple TV subscriptions starting this season, eliminating the separate paywall after years of accessibility complaints and underwhelming viewership.
Bringing announcers back to stadiums makes sense for a premium streaming product under a $2.5 billion partnership. The league tried cost-cutting with remote broadcasts for a season, faced pushback, and reversed course. Whether improved production quality will help viewership remains to be seen, but the changes suggest MLS recognizes it needs to deliver on the premium experience it promised when this deal was announced.
date: 2026-02-14 07:59:00
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