As 2016 Season Nears, MLS Live Touts 60% Year-Over-Year Sub Growth

As MLS prepares to kick off its 2016 season March 6 with a record 10 Opening Day matches featuring all 20 clubs, the league has announced substantial subscriber growth in its MLS Live OTT streaming platform. Powered by the NeuLion Digital Platform, MLS Live has seen a 60% jump in subscriptions year-over-year, including a record number of renewals and a record new activations for first-time subs.

An MLS Live 2016 season subscription, which costs $79.99, provides fans with live streams of games that aren’t nationally televised (local blackouts vary by market) as well as condensed and archived games. In addition to video streaming, MLS Live provides users with interactive fan touchpoints, such as key-play markers, slow-motion viewing, real-time live stats, DVR fan controls, and social-media integration.

An MLS Live 2016 season subscription will offer live streams of games that aren’t nationally televised.

An MLS Live subscription will be particularly important to fans for Opening Day, when the five matches not carried nationally on ESPN (Portland vs. Columbus), FS1/Fox Deportes (Seattle vs. Sporting KC), UniMás (LA Galaxy vs. D.C. United), and TSN in Canada (NY Red Bulls vs. Toronto FC and Vancouver vs. Montreal) will be streamed live on MLS Live. With the exception of local blackouts, the following also will be streamed: Orlando City SC vs. Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas vs. Philadelphia Union, Houston Dynamo vs. New England Revolution, San Jose Earthquakes vs. Colorado Rapids, and Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. Montreal Impact.

MLS Live is available in the U.S. and Canada on live.mlssoccer.com, iOS devices, Android devices, Roku, Apple TV, and Google’s Chromecast Media Player. Last season, 40% of subscribers viewed MLS Live via PCs, 40% on smartphones and tablets, and 20% using Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast connected devices.

MLS and NeuLion plan to launch several enhancements during the 2016 campaign, including closer integration with MLSsoccer.com through single sign-on and new user interfaces.

“Our partnership with NeuLion helps us deliver a second-to-none soccer experience for our fans, which is crucial for our digital strategy,” says Chris Schlosser, SVP/GM, MLS Digital, in a statement. “With the tremendous success of MLS Live, we are excited to continue to add even more ways for our fans to enjoy all the action this season.”

Streamlining the content-delivery process, the NeuLion Digital Platform is an end-to-end platform providing licensed components from content ingestion, encoding, and management to content security, monetization, and monitoring. The platform facilitates streaming and sharing high-quality content up to 4K/UHD, including premium sports and entertainment content.

“NeuLion understands the importance of staying cutting-edge and meeting the demands of soccer fans while driving subscriptions for the league,” says NeuLion CEO Dr. Kanaan Jemili. “NeuLion’s expertise in delivering live sports ensures our partners are at the forefront of innovation and continue to take the experience to the next level year after year.”