Amazon Prime Enters MLS Video Streaming Arena As Seattle Sounders Partner

On Tuesday, Amazon Prime Video became the latest company to dive into Major League Soccer’s video streaming landscape when the Seattle Sounders announced on Tuesday the subscription service would be the team’s exclusive in-market video streaming partner for local telecasts.

The move means Sounders fans who subscribe to Prime and live in Seattle’s broadcast territory will be able to catch local telecasts without a cable subscription or digital broadcast TV adapter. And it may represent a victory for MLS fans who believe local telecasts should be accessible for cord cutters and conventional TV viewers alike.

Prime joins YouTube TV and Disney+ as the major streamers that have skin in the MLS game. YouTube TV holds the exclusive telecast rights to LAFC local telecasts in English, meaning there is no alternative on a local broadcast or cable TV outlet. Disney+ — through subsidiary ESPN+ — holds the out-of-market United States rights to all local MLS telecasts.

By contrast, Prime’s deal supplements the Sounders local TV deals with Q13 FOX (KCPQ-Channel 13) and JOEtv (KZJO-Channel 22), meaning fans have multiple options for accessing local telecasts. (Seattle previously had a similar arrangement with YouTube TV.)

Additionally, Seattle’s agreement with Prime expands the club’s local broadcast territory to the entire state of Washington, rather than simply the regions closer to the city’s metro area.

The clash between streaming as a supplement or as a replacement for TV has been a faultline in MLS and American soccer for a couple years years. Perhaps most recently, CBS Sports irked American-based fans of the European game by showing high stakes UEFA Champions League quarterfinal and semifinal matches exclusively on its online service. The most egregious instance came Saturday, when the quarterfinal between Manchester City and Lyon was not shown on CBS Sports Network, which instead aired reruns of auto racing events.

In MLS, YouTube TV’s relationship with LAFC is in its third year, but it’s important to note its exclusivity pertains only to English language transmission. The club’s fanbase is heavily — perhaps even primarily — Latinx, and Univision Los Angeles broadcasts nearly all local LAFC telecasts in Spanish on its family of local channels.

Only one other club recently has attempted to feature all its local telecasts exclusively through a streaming service, when D.C. United signed with FloSports for the 2019 season. What was originally as a multi-year relationship (with team-held options) fell apart before the end of the first season amid fan complaints of price and stream quality.

Now with YouTube TV and Amazon in the local MLS telecast game, the question is will either wide-ranging service expand to other clubs. The Sounders and LAFC represent two of the biggest audiences in the league. However, Atlanta United, Inter Miami, Nashville SC, the LA Galaxy and incoming expansion clubs in Austin and Charlotte may represent clubs with similar profiles in the U.S. that could be targets of streaming services.