We’re seeing shifts in the approaches leagues take to soccer streaming. Spain’s top-tier soccer league, La Liga, will launch its own streaming service in August. This comes at the same time that America’s Major League Soccer scuttled its own streaming app.
La Liga’s president Javier Tebas told The Expansion that the new service will “look for a way to give visibility to those sports that can’t enter a mainstream channel.”
The new plans leverage the work of the LaLiga4Sports project. More than 60 sports federations in Spain leverage La Liga’s resources to produce digital content for their fans. Hockey, chess, hunting and equestrian sports could find new audiences thanks to La Liga’s new streaming service.
Hello ESPN+
The news from Spain came a few days after American soccer fans lost their streaming service. MLS Live gave fans access to out-of-market matches and enhanced content for $80 a year. Major League Soccer scuttled MLS Live in favor of the new streaming offering from ESPN.
Disney executives, speaking to Wall Street analysts last week, made it clear that ESPN+ would only carry sports content that couldn’t cut it on the traditional cable networks.
With a $60 annual subscription, sports fans will be able to watch MLS out-of-market matches and other sports live and on demand.
Disney has not announced when ESPN+ will go live. Until then, MLS will let anyone watch MLS Live games free of charge through the MLS website and apps
Chris Casper is a former tech industry product manager who escaped from California for New Mexico. Now he writes about science and tech while searching for the perfect green chile sauce.
